With only hours to go before Hollywood’s golden season draws to a close, I thought it was a good time to do the post-mortem on the summer of 2009.  By now you may have heard that this summer was Hollywood’s most-profitable ever with grosses topping $4.3 billion. But has it felt like the biggest summer ever?  Not really.  Blockbusters like “Transformers 2″ and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” aside, 2009 was a season of expensive movies that didn’t live up to the hype and cheap movies that performed above all expectations.  Follow me now into the murky world of box office number crunching to see just how huge Hollywood’s hugest summer really was.

The summer-weirdness continues as the weekend’s highest-profile release - director Judd Apatow’s “Funny People” - took first place and still managed to look like a bit of a loser.  Apatow’s star-packed follow-up to “Knocked Up” was a question mark to many box office analysts from the start.  On the one hand, it’s never a good idea to bet against an Apatow comedy; on the other hand, rumor had it that “Funny People” wasn’t that funny.  So what did it all mean in the end?  A respectable $23.4 million weekend take for the funny folks and another disappointing entry in Universal’s summer of regret…

One week at number one was all “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” could manage after all.  The sixth installment in Warner Brother’s epic wizarding-world saga succumbed to the superior numbers of Disney’s “G-Force”, which opened this weekend to a total of $32.2 million from 3,697 theatres - including 1,603 in Digital 3D.  Falling over 61% in its second weekend, “Half-Blood” still pulled in a respectable $30 million - good enough for second place and to bring the film’s worldwide total above $457 million. “The Ugly Truth” earned a very solid $27 million in its first weekend from 2,882 locations - proving that audiences are still in the mood to spend lavishly on romantic-comedies, no matter how terrible and ill-conceived those comedies might be.  And bringing up the rear of this weekend’s new releases parade, Dark Castle’s “Orphan” earned $12.8 million from its 2,750 venues.

At this time last year the box office was still being dominated by one blockbuster release - something to do with Batman, if I recall.  The summer of 2009 has had nothing like the single-title excitement of “The Dark Knight”, however, and already in the last weekend of July the studios are throwing multiple, genre-specific titles at the screen to see what sticks.  Disney has the  CGI hamster action of “G-Force” out in both Digital 3D and standard versions and - if Friday’s opening day numbers are any indication - “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” may have a hard time holding on to the top spot against the cunning rodents.   Sony’s “The Ugly Truth” is playing well to the romantic-comedy crowd while producer Joel Silver’s “Orphan” seems to be courting the under-served “kids without parents are creepy” demographic.  “Half-Blood” did manage to cross the $200 million mark on its tenth day out so check back tomorrow to see if that magic can overcome “G-Force” for the weekend title…

I’ll admit that the astonishing first day success of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” had me believing in magic.  A week ago I would have happily settled for seeing the sixth installment in Warner’s wizarding-world franchise outperform its predecessor - “The Order of the Phoenix”.  But then came that record-breaking midnight debut, followed by the “second-only to Tf2″ Wednesday total and suddenly my head was filled with headlines that trumpeted Potter’s $200 million success by Monday.  Sadly, it was not to be.  But just because those breathlessly elevated estimates haven’t quite panned out doesn’t mean that “Half-Blood Prince” has any reason to feel ashamed.  Both the weekend take of nearly $80 million and its five-day total of just under $160 million are series’ bests for Potter…

Last week Omelete (our partners in Brazil) were in London attending the international junket for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. Thanks to our partnership, I’m excited to be able to share the video interviews that Omelete did with the “Harry Potter” cast on Collider. We’ve already posted the interviews with Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, now it’s time for the interview with Emma Watson. Take a look after the jump.

Last week Omelete (our partners in Brazil) were in London attending the international junket for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. I was also in London for some set visits and had planned on attending the print portion of the junket. But due to a mix up in communication about which day the interviews were, I actually didn’t get to participate in the junket.

But thanks to our partnership, I’m excited to be able to share the video interviews that Omelete did with the “Harry Potter” cast on Collider. The other day I posted our interview with Daniel Radcliffe and now it’s time for Rupert Grint. With the movie doing record business, I’m sure many of you are going to be interested watching them. Take a look after the jump:

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was easily the top movie at the domestic box office on its first Friday in release, though Warner Brother’s dreams of seeing the sixth installment in the franchise come close to the $201 million five-day total of “Transformers 2″ now seem hopelessly out of reach.  “Harry Potter 6″ did have a record-breaking $104 million opening on Wednesday - combining a $58.2 million American haul with worldwide receipts of $45.8 million.  Thursday saw Harry’s box office fall 62% stateside to $22 million, however, and with Friday estimates coming in at $26 million, “Half-Blood” has almost no chance of catching up to “Revenge of the Fallen” by Sunday.  The good news for Potter fans, however, is that the film still has an IMAX debut to look forward to as well as overwhelmingly positive reviews to give it legs - something that was conspicuously absent as “Transformers 2″ clawed its way to the top.  And speaking of being on top, check out last week’s number one film “Brüno”, now down an enormous 81% from last Friday for a fourth place finish.  Check back tomorrow for box office estimates on the entire weekend…

As one of the producers of the “Harry Potter” films, David Heyman has done the impossible - he made the beloved books work brilliantly as standalone movies. And the most recent - “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” - is getting some of the best reviews yet. In fact, many have called it the best of the series.

Anyway, while “Half-Blood Prince” has just been released, David and the “Potter” team have been hard at work for the past three months on the final film, which is being released as a two-parter in November 2010 and July 2011. Since he was cool to talk about everything, we spent almost thirty minutes discussing all three films.

After the jump you can read about changes from the book to the screen, deleted scenes, the running time for “Deathly Hallows”, will there be a trailer for part two on part one, how long will the final battle be in part two, what else he’s producing, and a lot more! It’s a great interview and a must-read if you’re a “Harry Potter” fan.

After a record-setting midnight haul of $22.2 million from 3,003 theatres, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” rounded out its opening day with an estimated total of $58.4 million.  That was not enough to beat the all-time Wednesday record of $62 million set just last month by “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” but, considering the reduced price children’s tickets and the lack of available IMAX screens for the PG rated sixth “Potter” film, I’m sure Warner Brothers isn’t complaining.  Early five-day estimates predicted that “Half-Blood Prince” would earn about what its predecessor, “Order of the Phoenix”, did in 2007 - $139 million.  After this debut, however, I think it’s safe to say that the film will come closer to $200 million by Monday.  Check back all this weekend as we follow Potter’s progress…

Last week Omelete (our partners in Brazil) were in London attending the international junket for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. I was also in London on some set visits and had planned on attending the print portion of the junket. But due to a mix up in communication about which day the interviews were taking place, I actually didn’t get to participate.

But thanks to our partnership, I’m excited to be able to share the video interviews that Omelete did with the “Harry Potter” cast on Collider. Today you’ll be able to watch Daniel Radcliffe, and over the next few days the rest of them. With the movie doing record business, I’m sure many of you are going to be interested in what the cast had to say. Watch Daniel’s interview after the jump:

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” made its long-delayed debut into theatres on Wednesday at 12:01 am.  In its 3,003 midnight runs, the sixth film not only outperformed its predecessor (”Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) it also outperformed every film that ever opened in midnight engagements - and yes, that includes “The Dark Knight”.  “Half-Blood Prince” made an estimated $22.2 million from midnight screenings alone - easily besting the $18 million “Knight” made in 2008 as well as the $16 million we saw from “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” just last month.  It’s now pretty clear that “Half-Blood Prince” will top the $44 million opening of “Phoenix” from back in July of 2007, but to see how much higher it can go, you’ll have to check back tomorrow…

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is a masterpiece six films in the making.  It is the culmination of six books, four directors, scores of actors who have devoted the last decade of their lives to playing a single character, and teams of artisans bringing J.K. Rowling’s beloved series to life.  It may be my least favorite of the books but the latest film in the series is easily its best yet and one of the best movies of the year.

Warner Bros. has just released seven new movie clips from “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and they’re after the jump. This is on top of the 2 they released the other day.

Since I’ve already raved about the new “Potter” film, I don’t know what else to say except watch some of the clips and see for yourself what might be the best of the series. While I’d love to say it’s definitely the best one, that can only come from watching the film a few times and giving it some space. But it’s definitely one of my favorites, and I’m sure it will be one of yours as well.

Warner Bros. has released two clips from “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and they’re after the jump. Since I’ve already said how much I loved the new “Potter” film a few times, I don’t know what else to tell you except get your tickets now and see it opening weekend. While you already know how the movie is going to go if you’ve read the book, there are a few surprises. But if you need a taste now, the clips are called ‘I Killed Sirius Black’ and ‘Who’s the Half-Blood Prince’. Take a look:

According to Fandango, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is already selling 65% of it’s daily ticket sales. Also, advance ticket sales for the new Potter movie are outpacing advance sales for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and the fifth Potter movie, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, at the same point in those films’ sales cycles (eight days before release date). What that means is…the boy wizard is still magic at the box office.