GMAT Sentence Correction (SC) | GMAT Verbs: The Perfect Tense

mikemcgarry
GMATNinja

Are the following two sentences correct?

(1) By the end of the movie, Jeremy had tears in his eyes.
(2) By the end of the movie, Jeremy had cried twice.

I am a little confused in the usage of 'had' with phrases such as 'by the end....'.
' Had' is a helping verb and must be used as simple past.

But 'had' + Past participle should be used as past perfect tense.

Please guide.
...

---