10 Great Movies That Accidentally Made Cinema Worse
7. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Made Two-Part Blockbusters Acceptable
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows wasn't the first ever movie to split itself in two, but it was the one to popularise the practise at a blockbuster level.
In an attempt to squeeze a little extra cash out of customers, the final Harry Potter book was divided into two movies, and while many fans will defend the decision given the epic scope of the story, it unintentionally kickstarted a gross trend in the film industry.
In the wake of The Deathly Hallows' release, many other blockbuster franchises pulled similar tactics, what with Twilight, The Hunger Games, and Divergent all splitting their finales into two-parters. Though in Divergent's case it backfired spectacularly as the first part bombed, meaning the second never got made.
The most egregious example, though, must surely be The Hobbit, where Warner Bros. convinced Peter Jackson to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien's 310-page book into three movies totalling almost eight hours in length.
The trend has definitely cooled in recent years, though studios have grown wise to how much audiences hate the "Part 1/Part 2" nomenclature, and so tend to give their two-part movies titles that disguise their compartmentalised storytelling.
The last two Avengers movies, Dune, and the upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning are all proof that the two-part blockbuster is still very much alive.
You can certainly make a case for Dune being far better suited for a two-part treatment, but in most instances it feels like a desperate grab for more money from a sure thing IP.