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    "headline": "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone turns 25 on November 16, as does Emma Watson’s screen car",
    "description": "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone turns 25 on November 16, 2026, marking Emma Watson's first screen role as Hermione.",
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    "keywords": "Alnwick Castle, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Rupert Grint",
    "articleBody": "Every scene that names the magic stone in the first Harry Potter film was shot twice: once with the actors saying “philosopher’s” for British audiences and once with “sorcerer’s” for American ones. That film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, turns 25 on Monday, November 16, the day it opened in British and American cinemas in 2001. It also marks 25 years since Emma Watson first appeared on screen. She was cast as Hermione Granger on August 21, 2000, alongside Daniel Radcliffe as Harry and Rupert Grint as Ron, and the film was her first professional acting job of any kind. Before it, she had acted only in school plays. How three children got the parts The casting stories have become part of the legend. Watson’s Oxford theater teacher passed her name to the casting team, and she sat through more than five interviews before landing Hermione. Grint, a fan of the books, sent in a video of himself rapping about why he wanted to be Ron. Director Chris Columbus had wanted Radcliffe since seeing him in a BBC David Copperfield, but first had to persuade his parents. Author J.K. Rowling insisted on a British and Irish cast. That rule kept out several eager Americans, including Robin Williams, who was interested in Hagrid, and Rosie O’Donnell, who offered to play Molly Weasley for free. The numbers, then and now The opening was huge for its time. The film played in 3,672 theaters in the United States and Canada, took $90.3 million in its first North American weekend, a record then, and finished as the top-grossing film of 2001. Its first run brought in $974 million worldwide, and re-releases later pushed it past $1 billion, against a $125 million budget. The most recent of those, a 25th-anniversary run in 15 markets from August 27 to 29 this year, added about $5.4 million, and box office tracking data now puts the lifetime worldwide total at roughly $1.03 billion. A quick calculation shows how young the trio were. Watson, born on April 15, 1990, was 10 when she was cast and 11 when the film opened. She is 36 now, which means she has lived more than two-thirds of her life since the film reached cinemas: 25 of her 36 years. The rest of the timeline is just as tidy: September 29, 2000: filming begins at Leavesden Film Studios, north of London. March 23, 2001: principal photography ends, with Alnwick Castle in Northumberland and Gloucester Cathedral standing in for Hogwarts. November 4, 2001: world premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. November 16, 2001: release in the UK and US. 2011: the eighth and final film, Deathly Hallows – Part 2, closes the series. Where Watson went next After Hermione, Watson moved through The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Beauty and the Beast and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women in 2019, her most recent film role. She has since focused on activism, her studies at Oxford and the gin brand she launched with her brother Alex in 2023. In a 2023 interview she said she would “absolutely” return to acting, adding: “But I’m happy to sit and wait for the next right thing.” Anniversary reissues are having a moment; Badiyaa recently covered how Bong Joon Ho’s The Host returns to US theaters in 4K 20 years after its Cannes debut. The studio behind the Potter films, Warner Bros., is also part of the streaming shake-up in which HBO Max and Paramount+ will launch as one bundle in early 2027. The anniversary date is Monday, November 16, exactly 25 years after the film first reached cinemas in the UK and the US. Further reading Wikipedia: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (film) Wikipedia: Emma Watson Image: Dr.Haus, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.",
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