The Economist looks at “the Harry Potter economy”

As Potter fans, we know that the franchise has had a huge impact financially on various companies who own rights to the Harry Potter brand. Now, The Economist has an article online looking at the success of those companies.

Despite claiming that the series is “not great literature,” the article is still a good read. A sample:

In fact the Harry Potter books were the iceberg. As each book appeared it drew new readers to the series and expanded sales of earlier books in a snowball effect. Thanks largely to the boy wizard, Bloomsbury’s turnover, which had gradually increased from 11m pounds in 1995 to 14m pounds in 1997, took off. In 1999 it stood at 21m pounds. Two years later it was 61m pounds. By the middle of this decade, with Bloomsbury’s revenues above 100m pounds, rival publishers were griping that there was no point bidding against the firm for a children’s title. So far the books, which are published in America by Scholastic, have sold more than 400m copies worldwide. Not all were read by the young. Central to the books’ success was a repackaging, with a darker cover, for adults embarrassed about being seen reading a children’s book.

There are also comments from Potter producer David Heyman, who says that filming for Deathly Hallows will wrap in May. This is in line with other recent comments targeting a late Spring/early Summer release. Thanks to Amanda for the tip!