Most people didn’t care about a number on some obscure site like Rotten Tomatoes ba 2000 when the reviews were directly read in the neers. And almost all the reviews were glowing with high praise.

  ‘Lovers of the book will find most of their favorite moments beautifully realized, perhaps even bigger and more wondrous than they imagihem.’

  –Eric Harrison, Houston icle

  ‘Two and a half hours of pure, uninterrupted entment.’

  –Rex Reed, Observer

  ‘[Harry Potter] makes a satisfactory and spectacur, celluloid debut.’

  –Adrian Hennigan, BB

  ‘An imaginative and remarkably faithful adaptation.’

  –Keuran, Los Aimes

  ‘During [Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone], I retty sure I was watg a cssie that would be around for a long time, and make many geions of fans. The cast is led by an excellent Troy Armitage, who shows in every frame why he deserved that Oscar. His s presence is very magic, rendering you uo look away from him. Performances from other child actors, Emma Watson, Jamie Bell, and Tom Felton are phenomenal. Adult performers like Maggie Smith, An Ri, and Michael Gambon make you fet that they ever pyed anything beyond the characters of [Harry Potter]. Robbie Coltraeals the show among the adults as Hagrid.’

  Rating: 4 stars and a thumbs up.

  –Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  That was the best rating the film had received, that too from the most celebrated film criti the US.

  The positive response from the critid the buzz around the movie was verted into massive success when the film defeated all sorts of estimates by analysts around the world a on to debut at a staggering 37m on the first day itself in the US. On Saturday, owing t word of mouth, its colle increased to 40m, before slipping a little on Sunday to 31m, closing the opening weekend colle at a record-breaking 108m. The highest amount collected by any movie ever at the North Ameri Box Office. It also became the first movie in history to earn 100m in the first weekend itself. In the UK also, it broke all sorts of records, earning 27m in the opening weekend (￡18.8m), more than any other film ever.

  And just like that, within three days of its release, [Harry Potter 1] was decred a Blockbuster, earning more than its budget of 125m. Not that that makes it profitable, but with such a massive opening and glowing reviews, the film was bound to make a profit from the ema run itself. Not to mention the DVD market and merdise to be sold ter on.

  Not just in the English-speaking nations, [Harry Potter] rocked the world ema with its dominance. Even non-English speaking tries saw massive colles from tries like Japan, Brazil, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy, the film was a huge success unanimously. Within a month of its release, it had collected 272m in North Amerid 566m iionally for a worldwide colle of 838m, making it the fourth highest-grossing film in the history of ema, only behind [Titanic], [Jurassic Park], and [Star Wars: The Phantom Menace]. And with the speed with which it is going, it would likely overtake the tter two to emerge as the sed-highest-grossing film at the very least.

  Meanwhile, I stopped reading about the performance of the film after that initial time. All my time was focused on the sed Harry Potter film, [The Chamber of Secrets]. Just like with the first film, CGI-heavy ses like the Ford Anglia flying across the UK, only to crash into the Whomping Willow, Aantus attag Ron and Harry in the Forbidden Forest, and of course, some more quidditch ses, this time with Tom Felton, were shot before any other ses.

  By the time we were doh those VFX ses, the year 2000 had ended. And as happens with the end of any year in the film business, es the award season for the best films of the year 2000. As far as the year goes, 2000 was a letdown. In the inal timelihe highest-grossing film was [Mission: Impossible 2], followed by [Gdiator] and [Castaway], and none of them even broke past 500m except [MI2], which also was the lowest top movie of the year since 1995. There were some good cssic films as well like [Almost Famous], [Croug Tiger, Hidden Dragon], [Ameri Psycho], [Memento], but not as many as in the year 1999. You know it is a bad year for films when a mediocre fettable film like [Chocot] was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

  Because of my presence here, the highest-grossing movie was obviously [Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone] with a worldwide colle of 1.133 billion, officially making it the sed-highest-grossing movie ever behind [Titanic]. I like to think we did better than the inal timeline because there was no petition from [The Fellowship of the Ring], which would be released in 2001, and as discussed earlier, the year 2000 was very bnd for filmgoers.

  Not just that, my sed film of the year, [Billy Elliot], was also released in a limited release in the US and a wide release in the UK on the Christmas weekend. The critics came out with their reviews and the results were mind-boggling for me.

  “This is a film with a lot of charm, a lot of humor, and a lot of heart. Daldry's dire and the spy by Lee Hall distinguish themselves further in a discreet, intelligent way ... [Billy Elliot] has a freshhat makes it a pleasure to watch; it's a very emphatic success. Troy Armitage charms everyone once more with effortless ease and shows that he dance as well as he sing and act. The ematography of the dance sequences is breathtaking. Hardly any eye was dry at the heartwarming climax of the movie, which is elevated further by three of the year’s best performances in a single film: Armitage, Julie Walters, and Gary Lewis.”

  –Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

  “Julie Walters is spirited and colorful as the ballet teacher, and Gary Lewis is somehow ving as the dad evehe spy requires him to make big offs swings of position. Troy Armitage is excellent as Billy, ear and high-spirited, and a pretty good daoo. He would make you fet about all his other roles with his unique new iner at and perfect ag.”

  –Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

  “It's a simple tale but ohat is extremely well told and acted. Fittingly for a story about da doesn't put a fo and is engrossing, funny, very sad, very moving, and very uplifting. Troy Armitage as the young Billy Elliot is especially impressive as he mahe plex emotions his character goes through when his secret is discovered and his hopes are blocked. He's also outstanding at the dang—managing not just to be great at it but also to show us a progression as he struggles to bee that great and the effort it takes to keep it up.”

  –William Galgher, BBC

  On the website of Rotten Tomatoes, the film had a score of 95% with a score of 8.1/10. It will gradually e down with time as people have the luxury of hindsight, but for the moment, this was as good a score as possible for an indie film that was eaining as well. The film opened exceedingly well in the UK at ￡6m (8.5m) in the first weekend, which was amazing sidering that the budget of the film was just ￡3.5m (5m).

  While on paper, it may seem like a very good career progression, I was boired going from oo ao a film premiere, to a press juo an award season promotion. It was all just drivi of my mind. I barely had any time to spend with my family. While I may be an adult mentally, my body wasn’t and it desperately needed a break. Yet I didn’t pin. I didn’t want to e off as a whiny brat anymore. I had to act like the adult I was meant to be.

  The objey attention at the moment was my test financial records. The numbers still boggled my mind but it was what it was. My fht in Yahoo had paid off big time. Its stock had a free fall after the Dot- bubble burst, and the stock which was above 400 pre-split, had e down to ah of its value. My iment of half a million dolrs had turned into 9.5m pre-tax. Taxes further reduced the amount to 6.8m, but even that was signifit enough money for a kid my age. This, when bined with my sary from the first Harry Potter film of a staggering 18m pre-tax, gave me a pretty hefty paycheot to mention, I haven’t received my sary from [Billy Elliot] yet.

  The best part of the [Harry Potter] and [Billy Elliot] deals was that because the agreements were executed in the UK, I didn’t have to deposit anything in the Coogan at. After setting up a pany in name and paying off my taxes, I had around 14m ohat, when added to my sary from [AI], and stock market iments, left me with around 22.3m.

  [The Chamber of Secrets] had a budget of 100m, with my sary set at 5m. As per my agreement with Warner, I could i all of that 5m in the film produ, which I did. A signifit portion of my remaini worth of 22.3m would be used in the produ of [Billy Elliot: The Musical]. I khat I could i all this money iock market further, to make hundreds of millions, perhaps even a billion by the time I reached adulthood, but I didn’t see the point. For me, my career came first and foremost, and I’d still earn a handsome amount from the remaining Harry Potter movies to live the rest of my life without w about my finances.

  Usually, a stage musical costs 5-10 million for produg one show, be it on the West End, or Broadway. But I’d have to shell more than 15m for Billy Elliot. It seemed too steep a price for a musical, but it had to be, given what I had pnned. I had discussed this with Dad, and he had looked at me as if I had grown a sed head.

  “You are crazy,” Mum agreed with Dad’s silent assessment. “This is too much, Troy. I haven’t ever heard of someone pnning two produs of the same py in London as well as New York without at least one of them being successful already.”

  “Exactly,” I grinned. “I’ll be the first one.” And that was the reason why the produ was costing so damn much. I had po open a London produ year, and within 2-3 months of the debut, open a produ on Broadway as well.

  “Not everything you do is genius,” she disagreed with me. “What if it fails to be popur? What if it turns out to be bad? You’ll lose most of your iments and go broke.”

  “I’m a kid,” I pointed out helpfully. “I ’t legally go broke. And even if I do, we have the sed Potter movie to rely on. Moreover, I have limited time to do this before we start with the third Potter film, and I want to perform on Broadway as well as West End. It will be a little tight, but I’ll make it work somehow.”

  My parents shared a look between them before turning to me in unison. Their determined faces told me that they had talked about this before, but I was missing something.

  “Okay,” Dad agreed to my pn. “I’ll begin produs for West End and Broadway simultaneously. But we have a dition. Noiable.”

  I ined my head for him to tinue.

  “You will not take up any other project for the foreseeable future,” Dad stated clearly.

  “What?” I asked in surprise. “Why?”

  “Do you even have to ask, Troy?” Mum asked rhetorically. “You barely have time for anything. We hardly see you at home nowadays. It was bad enough that you were doing these Potter films, but between [Billy Elliot] and [Artificial Intelligence], you are stretched far too thin. And now you want to spend months in New York year. Did you even think about me or your father when you phat all on your oill have to drop everything from our lives and move to an unknown city, thousands of miles away from London. Making a career is ohing, but doing it at the cost of your family’s fort is not what I expected from you.”

  Instant guilt crept up inside me. It hadn’t even slightly occurred to me what impact this may have on my parents. I don’t want to do it in this way at all. If doing Broadroots my family, its better to—

  “No,” Dad interrupted my thoughts. “I know what you’re thinking, but we are not telling you to drop this after you have put so much thought into this. Your mother and I have agreed to let you do this, but only this show. When your run at [Billy Elliot:The Musical] is over, you won’t even look at the scripts of other projects, be they for TV, films, or anything else, until you are doh the fourth Harry Potter movie. Do you agree to our dition?”

  How I say no to that after everything they had said? “Okay,” I agreed without needing to think too much about it.

  “Good,” Dad smiled at me. “Enough of this serious talk for now. We are here in Los Angeles for the Golden Globes. Let’s enjoy that peacefully.”

  And just like that, Dad deftly ged to topic. The nominations for the 58th Golden Globes had been announced in December 2000, while the awards were being held on January 21, 2001. Like st year, I had no iion to attend a phony and corrupt award ceremony, but Dad got a call from Universal, the distributor. And they literally begged for me to attend. Then again, the film ening in wide release in the US on the same day, so it made sense for me to be there in person to promote the film. For me, this was only that: promotion.

  [Billy Elliot] was the most nominated film of the night with six nominations. They were: Best Picture–Drama, Best Actor–Drama (for me), Best Supp Actress (Julie Walters), Best Supp Actary Lewis), Best Director (Stephen Daldry), a Spy (Lee Hall). Not to mention that Dad (Steve Kloves) had also received a nomination for Best Spy for a film he had written a while back called [Wonder Boys].

  It goes on to show how much my presence had ged the timeline. As far as I remember, Jamie Bell hadn’t scored any nominations in a major award show with the sole exception of the BAFTAs, which he had won. Same fary Lewis, as he was mostly ignored by the Ameri voters despite giving (in my opinion) the best performan the film. This geed a lot of buzz for the film as getting the most nominations made it one of the most anticipated films of the night.

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