Monday, July 18, 2011

Everything you Wanted to Know about Harry Potter ... and more

If you didn’t know that the final Harry Potter movie came out last week, you must have been living under a rock. In its first day Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 shattered box office records in Australia, earning $7,029,487, making this the highest opening day of all time. Not a surprise really!



As I am something of a Harry Potter tragic, today I’ve asked Sian Delaney, WA’s publicist for the Harry Potter films to guest post on the site and share some interesting and fun Harry Potter facts and figures from throughout the series. Here's what she came up with for us:

  • Over 25,000 items of clothing have been used on Harry Potter.
  • The scenes with the largest number of cast and extras to dress have been the battle scenes in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with 400 Death Eaters and Snatchers and the Great Hall scenes with 400 children and teachers present. 
  • A dentist was on standby for many of the young crowd scenes to replace teeth which wobbled and fell out – to prevent continuity issues involving teeth. 
  • Harry’s infamous scar has been put on by makeup approx 5,800 times. This is not only on Daniel Radcliffe, who has had the scar applied approx 2,000 times, but also on his doubles and stunt doubles, all of whom wear the scar. 
  • 55 liters of hair tint/hair dye was used on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
  • Dan Radcliffe has been through 160 pairs of glasses during the shooting of all the Harry Potter films. 
  • Dan Radcliffe wore out 60-70 wands during the making of the films.
  • 40 versions of Salazar Slytherin's locket had to be created to accommodate Ron and Harry's failed attempts to destroy it. 
  • Number of sets created – 588. 
  • A 1/3 miniature of The Burrow was created just to be burnt down, when Death Eaters set it on fire in Half-Blood Prince. It took 14 weeks to make and 6 minutes to burn down. 
  • The Harry Potter art department contained a team of 58 people working full time. Over 10 years they produced some amazing work, but also produced 35 babies! 
  • 5 32-ton trucks' worth of polystyrene were needed to create all the rubble for Deathly Hallows. 
  • To keep brooms light-weight and aesthetically on spec, aircraft-grade titanium is employed in their structure. 
  • Producers David Heyman and David Barron were immortalized in portraits for the Marble Staircase. 
  • 250 body casts have been made of actors for deaths, petrifications and stunning spells. 
  • 210,000 coins were made for the Gringotts bank scene for the final two films alone 
  • On Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ron’s vomit slugs were in fact, puppets. Rupert Grint chose orange-flavored slime to make the experience more palatable. 
  • Robbie Coltrane, who plays Hagrid, once got a fruit bat stuck in his beard during a scene in Hagrid’s hut. 
  • After filming 40 kittens to go on moving plates in Umbridge’s office, the kittens went on to be domestic pets, with their new owners unaware of their famous origins. 
  • The Great Hall was one of the first ever sets created for the Harry Potter films. It could fit 22 London double-decker buses inside. The set took eighteen weeks to build by approximately 30 people. 
  • Dumbledore’s chair was inspired by the throne in Westminster Abbey. 
  • The Ministry of Magic is set underneath the Ministry of Defense in London 
  • 4000-plus pieces of furniture were bought to make up the massive piles of furniture in the Room of Requirement scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. 


Now it's your turn to tell us what you thought of the new movie!

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