Ch-96

In addition to the two main mysteries, there were two more smaller ones thrown into the loop. One was Harry seeing a dead man named Peter Pettigrew moving through the castle using a magical map, while the other was the disappearance of Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. While most people didn't think too much of it, Benji knew how important little details could be in [Harry Potter] films.

There was a particular scene that had cheers of joy going around the crowd of viewers, and that was when Hermione punched Draco in the face—a sentiment Benji could understand because he hated that 'foul, evil, loathsome little cockroach,' as Hermione called him.

But all the cheers died down in the following scene, when the Golden Trio visits Hagrid right before Buckbeak's execution, and then witnesses it from afar. Hermione breaks down as she hugs Ron, and Harry hugs her from behind. A marvelous piece of acting from the three actors as they came together as friends.

That tender moment is cut short when the film suddenly starts playing on steroids. The next moment, Ron is bitten by his rat, who had been found earlier by Hagrid. As Ron chases after him, so do Harry and Hermione. Ron is kidnapped by a ferocious-looking black dog and dragged away underneath the Whomping Willow. The same tree continues to attack Harry and Hermione viciously, only for them to escape after an exciting sequence where they outmaneuver the tree and land themselves in the Shrieking Shack.

There is a lot of alliteration in names, now that Benji thought about it—'Whomping Willow,' 'Shrieking Shack,' 'Peter Pettigrew,' 'Marauder's Map,' and so on.

In the Shrieking Shack, one of the coolest things happened. When the dog is revealed to be the murderer, Sirius Black, Ron, who has an injured leg, stands up on it after a lot of struggle, covers Harry protectively with his body, and says, "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!"

"Ron is so cool!" Ashley gushed beside Benji.

While he didn't comment on it because the film was going on, he agreed with Ashley's sentiment wholeheartedly. He also wanted a friend like that in his life. A friend who would do anything to protect you. A friend like Ron. He had many friends, but none were as close to him as Ron was to Harry.

As if not understanding how good of a moment that was, Harry pushes past Ron, making him fall back on the ground before attacking Sirius Black, a wanted mass-murdering prison escapee, head-on. Before he can actually do anything, Remus Lupin comes on the scene and disarms Harry. Then the utter betrayal happened when he hugged Sirius like they were long-lost brothers.

"Holy shit!" Someone yelled in the crowd.

The next few moments happened so quickly, with the arrival of Snape, him being attacked by Harry, and Lupin being outed as a werewolf, until the big reveal of the night—Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew all along.

There were multiple gasps of surprise in the hall when the small rat grew up to be a full-sized pudgy man.

Everyone decides to hand Pettigrew over to the authorities. Harry and Sirius have a tender family moment together. Everything seemed to be going perfectly well until Hermione pointed at the full moon, which began Lupin's transformation. That was the biggest clusterfuck in the night's events. Sirius is injured trying to save the kids, and as Harry goes to him, they are attacked by dementors, only to be saved by a silver stag that repelled the dementors.

Sirius is sentenced to death, while Ron is confined to his bed.

As if that wasn't enough excitement for the night, Harry and Hermione are visited by Dumbledore, who says some cryptic bullshit to Hermione—something she understands and that blows everyone's mind once more. She had a time-traveling machine with her the whole time! And she was using it to study? What a bookworm!

They go back in time and save Buckbeak first. Benji had a stupid grin etched on his face upon the realization that the beast wouldn't be killed. When they escape, Harry tells Hermione what he saw last.

"I saw my dad, Hermione. I know for sure that it was him because he had a stag Patronus. You can't fake a Patronus which repelled all those dementors."

When, at the right time, James Potter didn't appear, Harry abandoned all inhibitions and stepped forth before casting the spell on his own.

"Expecto Patronum!" His shout created an intense white light, followed by a shining ethereal silver stag that pranced around the clearing, shooing all the dementors away.

Then Harry and Hermione help Sirius escape the prison he was being kept in while on Hogwarts grounds. Harry and Sirius have a touching father-son moment before the older man escapes on Buckbeak. Harry and Hermione run back towards the hospital wing, where Ron was resting after his injury.

Benji sighed in relief at that perfect closure of the film. There were a few more scenes, like Lupin quitting the job, or Harry receiving a new broom as a gift, but they weren't that important. The main conflicts had all been resolved, and perfectly. This was indeed the best [Harry Potter] film up till now.

Usually, at this point, people would stand and start to leave, but since this was a premiere, no one did so and patiently waited for the credits to roll out completely. It was a little boring, but Benji persevered. When the last of the credits were done, and he was about to get up to clap for the filmmakers, something amazing happened. A scene started playing. Not just any scene—it was a trailer of sorts from [The Goblet of Fire]. Not a complete trailer, but it contains snippets of shots from the next film, like the scene where Harry is standing in front of a dragon, is swimming underwater, or is running beside another boy between two hedges. In the last one, he was casting some heavy-duty spell that emitted red light, but right before it could be shown who the opponent was, the screen cut to black, and a text appeared on it.

"Harry Potter and friends will return to Hogwarts next year."

Aww, snap! It will take a full year for the next part? Benji didn't like that at all. The exciting things like fighting a dragon or underwater battles were already thrilling enough for him. As much as he wanted to complain about that, he couldn't forget that this was a premiere, and for an extremely well-made film—the best of the series so far. So he stood up along with his fellow viewers and clapped loudly for a great movie. He wasn't alone in the theater; everyone did it for the cast and the crew, especially the director, who skillfully transformed [Harry Potter] from a kid franchise to something bigger and better.

"Thank you, everyone," Steve Kloves, Troy's adoptive father and the producer of [Harry Potter], took the stage and bowed before the audience. "Thank you for this warm reception to our movie. Now I'd like to call on stage the director and the cast members of the film, without whom this couldn't have been possible at all. Starting with Alfonso Cuaron…"

(Break)

It was a long-ass publicity schedule that ended in Los Angeles. Usually, I would go home after publicity, but since I had to begin working on [Brick], I decided to end my tour in LA. I truly missed my home back in London. Some people don't understand the value and comfort that one's own home provides. In my opinion, travel is a little overrated, especially when it means promoting your film in multiple countries. For the film, after New York, I went on an extensive European tour, followed by Australia, China, and finishing with Japan. The latter was my favorite experience to date. The craze and hero worship they have for [Harry Potter] in general, and me in particular, is unprecedented and a little scary. The only reason the Japanese collection for the film wasn't the highest in the world is that their population is only a third of the USA.

I decided to end the tour with a bang in Los Angeles, on a relatively new show that will become very famous, and eventually infamous for its toxic work environment.

"Please welcome the greatest star of his age in the world—Troy Armitage!" Ellen Degeneres announced loudly as I walked over to the set while waving at the loudly cheering audience. It was weird being back in Los Angeles after that incident, but with five security guards exclusively on my detail, I knew I was safe.

I hugged Ellen warmly before saying, "Thanks for having me here."

"It's great to have you here," Ellen beamed at me. "It's your first time here on the show; how do you feel?"

"I feel great!" I smiled wider. "Everyone is so lovely here."

"That we are," Ellen said teasingly. "So, why don't you tell this lovely lady about your girlfriend?"

Of course, she had to go there. We hadn't discussed anything of the sort in the questions that my PR team handed me over pre-interview.

"What girlfriend?" I lied through my teeth, feigning confusion. "I'm the most single guy ever."

"Why?" Ellen asked in surprise. "You are rich, handsome, and a great actor. And you're single? What's wrong with you?"

I laughed along with the audience at that joke.

"I want to wait for the right girl," I said with a sagely confidence.

"Seriously though," Ellen continued undeterred. "Girls must be throwing themselves at you. Don't tell me no girl has ever asked you out?"

Some people just don't get the hint. I tried to be creative.

"Well," I inclined my head sideways, "There was this girl in Japan when I was promoting my film, but I wouldn't exactly call it asking me out."

Ellen sounded eager to know the full story so she egged me on, "What happened?"

I got ready to narrate the incident that still amuses me to this day. "I was at this Japanese school recently to promote the film and I had to go use the loo. On my way back, this girl was standing there in the hallway and dropped her books on the floor after seeing me. So I picked up the books and handed them to her. As soon as our hands touched, she fainted. Literally. They had to call an ambulance for her."

Ellen and her audience started laughing uproariously at the story.

"I bet she won't forget this incident ever in her life," Ellen said in between her laughter before changing the topic. "Any other crazy fan interaction you may have had?"

I had a distinct feeling that she wanted me to talk about that crazy stalker Gia to boost her ratings, but I wouldn't give in that easily. Before every interview of mine for this movie, the reporters and talk show hosts were made to sign a contract that they wouldn't ask about the home invasion. But if I talked about it on my own, then it wouldn't matter. Ellen was clearly trying to circumvent that agreement indirectly.

"Well there was this other girl who was wearing a towel," I said with a plain face.

"Oh?" Ellen said a little dejectedly. "What did she do?"

"It was in New York, we were doing press a day after the premiere of [Prisoner of Azkaban]," I began. "It was freezing cold, and this girl was wearing only a Harry Potter towel from what we could see. And she was holding a sign that read, 'No one comes between me and my Harry.'"

I couldn't control my snickers as I recalled that incident. The audience agreed with me because they also laughed wholeheartedly at that story. Some people are just crazy, like Ellen for thinking I would break that easily with minimal prodding. I had tons more such stories where those two came from.

"I hope she didn't catch a cold," Ellen quipped before turning to important matters. "[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban] is releasing this week. Tell us something about the film."

"It's the third year at Hogwarts for Harry, Hermione, and Ron," I began with my rehearsed speech. "The movie gets a little darker as compared to the second one because it has soul-sucking dark creatures, prison-escapee murderers, and a lot of great revelations. It's a thrill ride from the first minute till the very last."

"Of course it is," Ellen nodded sagely before turning to the audience. "I have seen the film, and it is so good. It is releasing in a theater near you. Watch it before all shows are booked out. Give it up for Troy Armitage everyone."

I smiled and waved at the crowd who went crazy again. I looked at Ellen again, who was smiling equally wildly

(Break)

[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban] was released worldwide on November 5, 2003. Everyone knew that the film would be a big hit, so no one dared release any other film besides it. It helped that Warner Bros had chosen a Wednesday to release the film. It opened on tens of thousands of screens around the world to huge commercial and critical success. On the review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, it gained a rating of 96%, the highest of the series so far, with an average score of 8.4/10. It also got a score of 86 on Metacritic, and an 'A+' from CinemaScore. It was the only film series in history to have three straight A+ CinemaScore.

"While Alfonso Cuaron has perhaps made one of the greatest fantasy films of all time, one has to give credit to Chris Columbus for the casting decisions he took for the first film. The casting of Harry, Ron, and Hermione will be looked back upon as some of the greatest casting choices of the decade. Troy Armitage, who was already an acclaimed actor before [Harry Potter], continues to show everyone that it is not just the kid roles he can do well, but complex adult emotions as well. Emma Watson, on the other hand, is growing into a beautiful young lady with a mean streak. She dominates the second half of the film with her presence. The biggest surprise of the lot is undoubtedly Jamie Bell, who steals every scene he is in, be it as comic relief or as a courageous hero who stands beside his friend. He has grown tremendously as an actor in the last two films. Similarly, the adult actors also continue to show their mettle. If there was an Oscar for Best Casting, I know which movie it would go to.

Not just that, the visual effects, the music, the production design—everything is so perfectly designed that you would forget that you are watching a movie and that Hogwarts is not a real place. The Buckbeak and Dementor scenes are very convincing.

But the best part of the film is undoubtedly its emotional themes. Every emotion of Harry hits you hard, partly because of Troy's superb acting and partly because of the perfect execution by Alfonso Cuaron. Mark my words: This film will be studied even years later in film schools."

~Nicole Stephens, The Washington Post

This was just one such example but critics were unanimously praising the superior direction and camera work compared to the first two films. The use of long, uninterrupted takes was also noted by many. All these reviews, along with great audience anticipation for the film, had created a huge buzz, reflected in its opening week collection.

In its five-day opening weekend, the film collected a whopping $153 million in North America alone. This amount was further bolstered by the opening weekend collection in the UK, which amounted to £33.9 million, including the previews. Not to mention the equally superb collection the film had in the rest of the world. Japan came out to be the second-highest-grossing territory after North America. It was strange to see that the Japanese box office collection had even exceeded that of the home country of [Harry Potter].

After the conclusion of the initial box office run, [Prisoner of Azkaban] collected $336 million in North America, $172 million in Japan, $77 million in the UK, and $404 million in the rest of the world, bringing the total collection of the film to a whopping $989 million. It was the lowest collection of the three films released to date and the only film not to gross a billion dollars, but still more than profitable enough to keep the franchise running smoothly.

[Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World], the other big film released during that period, flopped badly, not even recovering its production budget of $150m, let alone the massive marketing costs associated with it.

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