Continuing in our look back on the last decade, Screenhead examines the major movie events of the year 2001.

“You’d think it would have been milked a lot earlier. Since the original Star Wars trilogy, there had been very few interconnected franchises around, despite the obvious appetite audiences would have for an extended movie series. But all that changed in 2001, the year that started two of cinema’s most successful franchises of all time. The story of orphan and fledgling wizard Harry Potter was already a huge hit when JK Rowling’s first novel hit the UK stores in 1997, and was even bigger in the US the following year.

It didn’t take long for the rights to be sold and in November of 2001 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released to great success, breaking opening day box office records and the, and the cast of unknown children became stars almost instantly (and managing to stay in their roles throughout the series, despite initial plans to recast). The films have raked in over $5 billion worldwide, and the last film, split into two films, is yet to be released.”

Read this article from Screenhead.

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