The Harry Potter franchise is huge and it’s only going to get bigger thanks to the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trilogy. Let’s take a look at 11 facts that show just how popular Harry Potter is…
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is estimated to have sold around 107 million copies worldwide
via The-leaky-cauldron.org
2. The book series as a whole is the bestselling book series in history, with sales of over 450 million
3. The eight films make up the second biggest film franchise, having brought in over $7.7 billion at the box office
4. As of August 2016, the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, is the eighth highest-grossing film of all time, having grossed $1.3 billion
5. The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book broke records for being the fastest-selling book ever; this record was broken by the next book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and was again broken by the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
6. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a land themed to Hogsmeade featuring shops and rides themed after the books and films, opened at Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando in 2010 and boosted the park’s yearly attendance by 35%
7. The rehearsal script for stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, touted as the eighth Harry Potter story, sold over 2 million copies in the US and Canada after two days of going on sale; in the UK it sold well over 800,000 copies during its first week of release
8. Tickets for the play have sold out ridiculously fast; a batch of 175,000 sold out within 24 hours
9. J. K. Rowling became the first US dollar billionaire novelist thanks to the success of the books; she’s since been downgraded to just a millionaire because she makes so many donations to charity
10. The book series has been voted the most influential in the world, partly because of the fact that it introduced many young people to reading
11. It’s estimated the Harry Potter brand is worth a staggering $15 billion
