I think towards the end of DH2 Yates tried to find a balance between loyalty to the book and adding a 'hollywood' aspect to it, I've forgiven it, would have preferred it to be totally loyal to the book.
Well there have been plenty of successful sequels, prequels, spin offs that have been released 10 years+ from their last film and still managed to be a success. If you honestly think people have forgotten LOTR you will be sorely mistaken.
SW skewing only slightly female, that is good for the film, showing appeal over both male and female audience thanks in part to Thor, also skewed slightly older than younger. All good things for SW, plus 2 good daily holds, right now it is shaped to have a solid run and finish over 140m, this weekend will paint a better picture for us.
I know this is flawed logic but take it for what you will.DH1 grossed 660m OSDH2 grossed 947m OS a 43.5% increase over DH1.If you apply the same value to ROTK'S 740M you get 1.06B OS.DH2 to DH1 was the final films so it had that advantage, I'm just trying to show that this club is not as easy as it looks, will be tough to reach 1B. The same 43.5% to FOTR would yield a gross of 800m OS, anything above 800m would be fantastic considering it is the first part in 2 films.
Off to a good start, if I had predicted SW to increase I might have been able to beat Townzy and get my partner of choice. Ow well, riczhang we should do well