The Harry Potter Franchise
HARRY POTTER BY THE NUMBERS
Fast Company Infographic
Harry Potter books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide.
The Harry Potter movies have grossed $6.4 billion worldwide.
Making it the highest-grossing franchise in box office history.
Electronic Arts has made more than $1 billion in revenue from Harry Potter video game titles.
THOUGHT: Every Harry Potter book release and every Harry Potter movie release is an event comparable to an Apple product release in the buzz it generates.
I happened to be at a Barnes & Noble during the midnight release of one of J.K. Rowling’s books and was stunned at the excitement the kids who were there to buy a copy expressed. Dressed as their favorite Harry Potter characters, they squealed with delight and anticipation. It gave me great hope that kids could be so excited about buying a novel.
It looks like the “release” of Pottermore, Rowling’s website from which she’ll sell Harry Potter eBooks exclusively (cutting Barnes & Noble & Amazon out of their e-cuts), will use the same playbook. Right now, you can sign up for an email notice of when the site goes “live” July 31st, during which fans can compete for early access before the site opens up to the unwashed masses on October 1.
In addition to selling eBooks, the site will highlight heretofore unreleased material from the books and fans will be able to upload their Harry Potter art. (Tunheim‘s own Stephanie Trow is at work on a Harry Potter-themed painting.)
I’ve written several times before about the rise of eBooks. It is clearly where the publishing industry is headed. But I’m guessing the sales of the Noon and the Kindle and tablets will get a nice boost from the availability of Harry Potter eBooks.
Just as some video game titles that are exclusive to a given console drive sales of that console, the Harry Potter franchise may very well do the same for eBook reading devices.
THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Tablet Newspaper, Circa 1994.
Thank you for fantasy fiction.
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