My posts may include paid links for which I earn a commission.
Harry Potter versus Twilight. A rivalry of epic proportions, literally. Or is it?
Because I own a Twilight merchandise website, I have set up a number of different Twilight Google Alerts. For the last few days, those alerts have been dominated with links to sites debating the upcoming Harry Potter movie versus the Twilight movie coming out in November. Everyone wants to know who “wins.”
The odd thing to me is that it really isn’t a competition. Yes, you can figure out which will have more ticket pre-sales through Fandango. And yes, you can figure out which generates more revenue. But the bulk of the articles and forum posts are not about actual numbers. They are about putting Harry Potter as a whole and Twilight as a whole up against each other in some weird contest.
I read Twilight first. Read the whole series on recommendation of Janet and her Book Nook. I read it so fast and was so taken by it that I scoured the Internet for more sites to let me still live in the “Twilight” world. It was a little obsessive. I was so upset that it was over that I couldn’t even imagine reading anything else and liking it as much. Friends kept telling me to read Harry Potter, so I eventually gave in. I actually became more obsessed with HP than I was with Twilight!
Now that I have had time to reflect on both (including watching the first Twilight movie and the first 5 Harry Potter movies), I can say with certainty that there isn’t a competition between them. The only thing that ties them together is that they are both fantasies and there are multiple books. The themes are different, the audiences are different, the writing styles are different.
Harry Potter and Twilight can co-exist. Everyone will have their favorites. Wear your Harry Potter shirt on Monday and your Team Edward shirt on Tuesday. See Half Blood Prince in July and New Moon in November. There is room for everyone to love both in different ways and at different times.