Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a
2007 fantasy adventure film, based on the
novel of the same name by
J. K. Rowling. Directed by
David Yates, produced by
David Heyman's company
Heyday Films, and written by
Michael Goldenberg, it is the fifth film in the popular
Harry Potter film series. The story follows
Harry Potter in his fifth year at the
magic school
Hogwarts. The
Ministry of Magic refuses to believe the return of
Lord Voldemort and appoints
bureaucrat Dolores Umbridge as a teacher at the school.
Live-action filming took place in England and Scotland for exterior locations and
Leavesden Film Studios in
Watford for interior locations from February to November 2006, with a one-month break in June. Post-production on the film continued for several months afterwards to add in visual effects. The film's budget was reportedly between GB£75 and 100 million (US$150–200 million).
Warner Bros., the distributor of the film, released it in the UK on 12 July 2007, and in the US on 11 July, both in conventional and
IMAX theatres.
It is the unadjusted
seventh-highest grossing film of all time, and a critical and commercial success, acclaimed as "the best one yet"
by Rowling, who has consistently offered praise for the film adaptations of her work.
In general, critics received the film well. Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone called the film "the best of the series so far,
[1] the laughs, the jitters and the juice to make even nonbelievers wild about Harry".
The film opened to a
worldwide 5-day opening of $333 million, third all-time, and grossed $939 million total, the second to
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End for the greatest total of 2007.