Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1: One Fan's Appreciation That Film-Makers Split The Film

Hollywood is full of greed.  Movie stars make movies strictly because someone backs up a truckload of money to their house and dumps it at their feet.  Directors sacrifice story for the sake of squeal-inducing special effects that create big revenue.  Producers seek out only those stories most likely to make over $100 million the first weekend.

But sometimes good storytelling is behind a decision and not greed.  That was definitely the case with the seventh installment of Harry Potter, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1".

When it was first announced that the film makers had decided to split the 700 page book into two films, the reaction was decidedly negative.  Many people were convinced that producers of the massive film franchise were only looking to make more money off of the already monolithic series.

The series had already grossed approximately 5.4 billion dollars worldwide; however, even before the release of the 7th film.  It seemed odd then, that even in a place as greedy as Hollywood, the producers would feel the need to take unnecessary steps to gain even more revenue from the franchise.  After all, Warner Bros also receives royalties from the millions of dollars made from Harry Potter merchandise.  The series has done phenomenally well for the studio and brought it critical acclaim as well as great box office.  Therefore, it would be the height of silliness for them to risk ruining the story in this final installment simply to get one more terrific opening weekend.

It always seemed more likely to me, that screenwriter Steve Kloves and director David Yates simply knew that there was no way they could do the 700 page novel justice in two or even three hours.  They knew that fans of the series were counting on this last installment to deliver all the answers they'd been seeking and to include all the things that they'd loved while devouring the last book in the series.

Having now seen the movie I can assure you that this was exactly the reason for the split.  Will studio execs be crying because they get to take in an extra billion dollars from the series?  No.  However, if they had not made the book into two movies, we would have heard a lot more griping from fans that the story was made incomplete by cuts.

I know I'm not alone in gladly paying an extra ten bucks to have one of my favorite stories told in full.  Whether greedy or artistic reasons were behind the split, it is a boon for fans of the series.