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First-day sales magical for Harry Potter finale

Motoko Rich

Excitement was like the Beatles’ first visit to the U.S.

In its first 24 hours on sale, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final instalment in the wildly popular series by J.K. Rowling that officially went on sale at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, sold 8.3 million copies in the U.S., according to Scholastic Inc., the publisher.

That exceeded the 6.9 million copies that “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth in the series, sold in its first 24 hours on sale two years ago.

The figures seemed to show that numerous leaks before the official release, including photos of every page of the book that circulated on Internet file-sharing services last week, had failed to dent the enormous pent-up demand for the book.

On Friday night, booksellers and fans threw parties to herald the book’s release, and at many outlets in New York and elsewhere, lines stretched around the block with shoppers waiting to be the first to buy the book shortly after midnight.

“The excitement, anticipation, and just plain hysteria that came over the entire country this weekend was a bit like the Beatles’ first visit to the U.S.,” Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic’s trade and book fairs division, said in a statement.

Scholastic’s Arthur A. Levine imprint printed 12 million copies of “Deathly Hallows.” That brings the total number of “Harry Potter” books in print in the U.S. to 133.5 million.

Before the publication of “Deathly Hallows,” the six other books in the series had sold about 325 million copies worldwide. The series is published by Bloomsbury.

Many of the books sold were priced at a substantial discount. Barnes & Noble, for example, was selling “Deathly Hallows” at 40 per cent off the $34.99 cover price, or $20.99. Amazon.com was selling it for $17.99.

The estimate of first-day sales indicates that at an average selling price of about $20, Americans spent about $166 million for the book in one day. — New York Times News Service

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