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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Has Harry Lost His Magic Touch?
Aired November 18, 2002 - 08:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to talk "Harry Potter" right now. The new movie had a huge opening weekend, but some were asking, is "Harry Potter's" magic losing some of its punch? Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business."
How are you this morning?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Paula.
It's sort of hard to imagine. I mean, here a movie does $87 million in three days, which is the third highest grossing movie ever. That's after "Spider-Man" and $114 million in the first "Harry Potter" movie at $90 million, but people are wondering a little bit off the mark. Because sequels to blockbusters tend to do better. Now there is the first one.
ZAHN: They do better?
SERWER: They actually do better. Now here is the one that didn't do better. So that is the first "Harry Potter" movie that did $90 million. The second one just did $87 million over the weekend.
ZAHN: That's not a huge difference.
SERWER: Look at some of these other screens here. You look at the "Star Wars" franchise. Now, here is the first "Star Wars." You do 64 million, but the second one did $80 million. And so you see that they want them to step up. "Jurassic Park" the same thing, 50 million the first one, the next one does 92 million. And then you go to "Mission Impossible," which did 56 the first one, 70 the second one. Now, of course, AOL-Time Warner executives, our company, are saying what are you talking about? This is a smash, $87 million. But you have you to wonder, if they aren't a little disappointed, because it did not exceed the first one.
ZAHN: When I looked at your statistics, even the second time around, it made more a lot more than even the second time around with these other sequels you pointed out.
SERWER: That gets back to the first point, which it is the third highest grossing movie of all time for a weekend. You can't -- anything over $80 million, they call in the movie business La-La Land, which is probably appropriate. But that's a lot of money, and maybe we're nit-picking here, and they expect it to do a billion dollars- plus in total business and sales and everything else, but you know.
ZAHN: They could have made $100 off more off you and me if we had been tolerant of the long lines.
SERWER: Well, I think that's right.
Another magic man we should talk about this morning, Rudy Giuliani, yes. And you know what's interesting, every time a high- profile position opens up anywhere in the world, Rudy's name gets bandied about. The SEC, we talked about it.
Now today, the report is out in the "Wall Street Journal" about Rudy Giuliani being offered the chairman's job at WorldCom. the troubled telecom giant. And this really kind of twisted because the other day, Michael Capellis (ph) the ex-CEO of Compaq, was given the CEO's job. This reflects a battle between the bondholders and the stockholders. When a company goes into bankruptcy like this, they all start fighting each other. But why would Rudy Giuliani take this job?
ZAHN: Well, that's my question, why? Would he?
SERWER: No, I don't think he's going to take it. I think this is wishful thinking, although he is involved with the bondholder's group. But you know, move to Mississippi? I don't see it.
ZAHN: I think Mr. Giuliani is very happy in the Big Apple.
SERWER: Yes, absolutely.
ZAHN: Thanks, Andy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 18, 2002 - 08:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to talk "Harry Potter" right now. The new movie had a huge opening weekend, but some were asking, is "Harry Potter's" magic losing some of its punch? Andy Serwer is here "Minding Your Business."
How are you this morning?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Paula.
It's sort of hard to imagine. I mean, here a movie does $87 million in three days, which is the third highest grossing movie ever. That's after "Spider-Man" and $114 million in the first "Harry Potter" movie at $90 million, but people are wondering a little bit off the mark. Because sequels to blockbusters tend to do better. Now there is the first one.
ZAHN: They do better?
SERWER: They actually do better. Now here is the one that didn't do better. So that is the first "Harry Potter" movie that did $90 million. The second one just did $87 million over the weekend.
ZAHN: That's not a huge difference.
SERWER: Look at some of these other screens here. You look at the "Star Wars" franchise. Now, here is the first "Star Wars." You do 64 million, but the second one did $80 million. And so you see that they want them to step up. "Jurassic Park" the same thing, 50 million the first one, the next one does 92 million. And then you go to "Mission Impossible," which did 56 the first one, 70 the second one. Now, of course, AOL-Time Warner executives, our company, are saying what are you talking about? This is a smash, $87 million. But you have you to wonder, if they aren't a little disappointed, because it did not exceed the first one.
ZAHN: When I looked at your statistics, even the second time around, it made more a lot more than even the second time around with these other sequels you pointed out.
SERWER: That gets back to the first point, which it is the third highest grossing movie of all time for a weekend. You can't -- anything over $80 million, they call in the movie business La-La Land, which is probably appropriate. But that's a lot of money, and maybe we're nit-picking here, and they expect it to do a billion dollars- plus in total business and sales and everything else, but you know.
ZAHN: They could have made $100 off more off you and me if we had been tolerant of the long lines.
SERWER: Well, I think that's right.
Another magic man we should talk about this morning, Rudy Giuliani, yes. And you know what's interesting, every time a high- profile position opens up anywhere in the world, Rudy's name gets bandied about. The SEC, we talked about it.
Now today, the report is out in the "Wall Street Journal" about Rudy Giuliani being offered the chairman's job at WorldCom. the troubled telecom giant. And this really kind of twisted because the other day, Michael Capellis (ph) the ex-CEO of Compaq, was given the CEO's job. This reflects a battle between the bondholders and the stockholders. When a company goes into bankruptcy like this, they all start fighting each other. But why would Rudy Giuliani take this job?
ZAHN: Well, that's my question, why? Would he?
SERWER: No, I don't think he's going to take it. I think this is wishful thinking, although he is involved with the bondholder's group. But you know, move to Mississippi? I don't see it.
ZAHN: I think Mr. Giuliani is very happy in the Big Apple.
SERWER: Yes, absolutely.
ZAHN: Thanks, Andy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
