Jest Life: Box office appeal

Looking at the quirky side of our world. A snapshot that reveals many a picture

Star wars are on. Harry Potter versus Frodo Baggins; will Quidditch steal the box office or the fighting prowess of the Uruk-Hai army being created by the evil wizard Saruman to destroy all races of Middle Earth?

If you do find all this completely alien, then sadly the verdict is you are a true blue Muggle. You have very little hope of ever being invited for a spell-binding dinner to the Hogwarts school of magic and wizardry. They'll probably just petrify you.

As the dark Lord Sauron grows in power, J.R. Tolkien's sword-and-sorcery epic is bringing in the big bucks. The second installment in the trilogy - The Two Towers - collected $26 million in the U.S. and Canada on its first day in cinemas.

The film's recent debut shattered the previous box office record for a single day's take in December, set last year by the first in the trilogy - The Fellowship of the Ring - at $18.2 million.

The first Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone film raked in $961 million to become the second highest grossing movie of all time behind Titanic. The Fellowship of the Ring made $860 million, emerging as the biggest film of all time in New Zealand, Norway and Denmark.

The difference between the two revenues would be to the tune of more than $100 million. Small change for films that have together brought in $1.82 billion at cinemas around the globe.

What do all these figures mean? More people are going to watch films on the big screen. They most probably do have a second and third viewing in the comfort of their homes. But the audience has returned to the cinemas.

The reasons could be numerous, ranging from better theatres to excellent facilities. However, it most probably because these films are well made. Good movies attract people.

Earlier, viewers didn't have much choice and were forced to watch most of the fare in cinemas. Not everybody could afford state-of-the-art home theatre systems.

Progress and time have made technology more accessible to a wider audience base, no longer do you have to sit through Judge Dredd, because you spent a fortune on the tickets.

Choice was presented and we chose to go back into cinemas, when it was well worth our time. The difference is being allowed to make up our minds whether Schwarznegger should be banned from acting forever and mouthing inane one-liners or just be gently pushed into oblivion for a few 100 years. Terminate the Terminator.

This new phenomenon of dazzling box office collections are not just limited to fantastic plots that revolve around wizards and young boys. Die Another Day with the legendary 007 agent Bond has done well, despite having to battle it out with the young warriors.

He may be battling an evil, power-crazy North Korean, with a penchant for fencing, but the ensuing struggle is as interesting as the sparks that fly between Potter and Voldemort.

With more beach beauties dancing on attendance than elves, Bond with his cool, dynamic portrayal is attracting a good crowd. There are more films in the pipeline which promise to be equally exciting such as Gangs of New York - a violent saga by Martin Scorcese starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio.

If the product is good, people will respond. It might make them think twice before picking up that pirated CD or DVD. The pleasure of crunching through hot buttered tubs of popcorn while watching a well-made film cannot be achieved at home. It is all part of the experience, but the films need to have a magical quality...