This chart breaksdown the Harry Potter films’s U.S. box office. Oh and the new one, that seemed to b0ttom out after it’s huge haul from opening day midnight shows? The one that came out three weeks ago? It already has a worldwide gross of $755 million.

The blue dots represent the newest movie, which is ahead of the curve.

But aren’t you more curious to feel like a dirty old pervert by oogling pictures of Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger from the pages of Maxim?

See, Ginny’s magic spell is that someone she became all grown up without us realizing it.

It’s in German, but there’s isn’t much talking anyways. Mostly, it’s worth watching to get a sense of where director David Yates is taking the story visually. He’s taking it to Awesometown via Dark Street. Har! Har!

You can also check out the clip of Harry and Dumbledore preparing for their journey to the cave, which isn’t some sort of pedo-Plato reference. The old man and his young protege are just preparing for some adventure. [via Film Misery]

Also: Paul Dergarabedian heaps lavish praise on the new Potter installment, calling it “not only exquisite in its production values, but was also charming, funny, scary, enchanting, moving (stop me, the adjectives could go on and on) and dare I say, sexy.” He probably ran out of adjectives, if not breath first, but he also proclaimed it Oscar-worthy. Yowzas.

But this one?  This one looks even scarier and more intense than those two movies combined.

And we thought that that might be the end of this particular universe, so we slooowly dragged out each and every page as the boy wizard saga reached it’s ultimate conclusion.

Well, J.K. Rowling, billionaire maestro behind this whole shebang, has gone and pulled a George Lucas on us by offering up The Tales of Beedle the Bard this December.

That’s right, the book of five fairy tales Albus Dumbledore gave to Hermione Granger will be yours for the low low price of $12.99. It’s available for pre-order now and will hit bookshelves on Dec. 4 just in time for that Christmas holiday. Now that’s something straight outta George Lucas’s playbook.

“Oh hey, it’s Christmas time you’re kid would really love another Harry Potter book.” So um, hint hint Mom?

Official Plot Synopsis:

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a Wizarding classic, first came to Muggle readers’ attention in the book known as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now, thanks to Hermione Granger’s new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J. K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore. Never before have Muggles been privy to these richly imaginative tales: “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,” “The Fountain of Fair Fortune,” “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart,” “Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump,” and of course, “The Tale of the Three Brothers.”

The stories are accompanied by delightful pen-and-ink illustrations by Ms. Rowling herself [ed. note - um, it says the illustrations are by Mary GrandPre, longtime Potter illustrator], featuring a still-life frontispiece for each one. Professor Dumbledore’s commentary—apparently written some eighteen months before his death—reveals not just his vast knowledge of Wizarding lore, but also more of his personal qualities: his sense of humor, his courage, his pride in his abilities, and his hard-won wisdom. Names familiar from the Harry Potter novels sprinkle the pages, including Aberforth Dumbledore, Lucius Malfoy and his forebears, and Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (or “Nearly Headless Nick”), as well as other professors at Hogwarts and the past owners of the Elder Wand. Dumbledore tells us of incidents unique to the Wizarding world, like hilariously troubled theatrical productions at Hogwarts or the dangers of having a “hairy heart.” But he also reveals aspects of the Wizarding world that his Muggle readers might find all too familiar, like censorship, intolerance, and questions about the deepest mysteries in life.

But not only are thesetales the equal of fairy tales we now know and love, reading them gives new insight into the world of Harry Potter. This purchase also represents another very important form of giving: From every sale of this book, Scholastic will give its net proceeds to The Children’s High Level Group, a charity cofounded in 2005 by J. K. Rowling and Emma Nicholson MEP to make life better for vulnerable children.

The biggest thing they reveal is that young Tom Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort, is being played by Ralph Fiennes’s 11-year-old nephew Hero Fiennes-Tiffin. That’s good stuff, keeping it in the family.

“His mother (Martha Fiennes) is a film director, and Hero was very focused and disciplined,” [director David] Yates says. “The fact that he’s related to Ralph wasn’t the primary reason for choosing him. It was an advantage that he looked very similar to Ralph. Of course that was useful. But primarily I went for Hero because of this wonderful haunted quality that seemed to bring Tom Riddle alive on-screen for us.”

Yates stressed how hard it can be for very young actors to find the necessary dark place to play such a creepy character.

“But even though he’s the nicest child you’d ever want to meet, sweet-natured and pleasant, he got the corners and dark moods and odd spirit of the character.”

To be honest, until I saw the trailer I entirely forgot what Book 6 was about. I’m still a little hazy around the edges, but I remember Harry and Dumbledore go around looking to destroy the soul of Voldemort.

Luckily for fans it wasn’t it.  Author J.K. Rowling took part in an online auction this past month wherein she scribble an 800-word prequel to Harry Potter on a postcard that sold for an astounding $48,585.  You can read that story here, though it isn’t always easy to read Rowling’s handwriting.

Now she’s participating in writing a story that will be turned into a mini-movie that will be shot with actors Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe.  According to the Sunday Mirror the movie will be shown as part of the Universal Studios theme park The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida.

The movie and some additional clips and sequences for the theme park will be shot in Leavesden, Herts, UK before the trio begin filming movie number seven.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is expected to open late next year or early 2010.  The 20-acre island will feature attractions, shops and restaurants set inside  locations such as the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade Village and the iconic Hogwarts castle.  Concept art for Hogsmeade can be seen above.  It looks pretty cool in that sort of kitschy Disney/theme park kind of way.

I see no downside to an amusement park like this, even if it does cheapen the Harry Potter experience a bit.

There is no word on what this story or movie will entail, but you can expect there will be interest for it when it does arrive.  [via]

“Our commencement speaker tricked parents into letting their kids read books filled with sex, murder, and homosexual role models,” said Adam Goldenberg, a Canadian student who writes for the Harvard Crimson, the daily newspaper at the university.

“Harvard seniors have every right to demand a Harvard-calibre speaker. Harry Potter – and JK Rowling – is just a flash in the pan. Writing bedtime stories is lame – just ask Tolkien and CS Lewis. The class of 2008 has been royally screwed by Harvard. A petty pop culture personality of questionable permanence will send us on our merry way, while figures of real substance wait in the wings.”

I would hardly call Tolkein or CS Lewis mere bedtime story tellers and like those two heavyweights, Rowling elevates mere fantasy/mythology to a grandeur unseen in most literature.

To balance off the slight of author J.K. Rowling, Harvard students enlisted Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to speak on Class Day. Obviously, it goes without saying that Robin Williams is available for commencement. Seems like he might be “highbrow” enough for all those smaht kids.