Harry Potter U.S. Sales Set Record, Scholastic Says (Update1)
By Katie Hoffmann and Josh Fineman
July 23 (Bloomberg) -- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,'' the seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling's best- selling children's series, sold a record 8.3 million copies in the U.S. on its first day, publisher Scholastic Corp. said.
Customers at Borders Group Inc., the second-largest U.S. bookseller, bought 1.2 million of the books, the highest single- day sales of any title in the company's history. In the U.K., retailer Asda said its shelves were almost cleared out.
"The final Harry Potter book will undoubtedly be the biggest seller of the series so far; that's a given,'' said Simon Davies, an analyst at ABN Amro in London. He has a "hold'' rating on Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, the series' U.K. publisher.
First-day sales surpassed the U.S. record of 6.9 million copies set by Rowling's sixth book in the series in 2005, New York-based Scholastic said in a statement yesterday. The company this year released 12 million copies at 12:01 a.m. July 21, the biggest initial printing for a book about the boy wizard. Bloomsbury declined to say how many millions of copies it had ordered for its first printing.
The 1.2 million copies of "Deathly Hallows'' sold at Borders on the first day exceeded the 850,000 copies sold of book six, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,'' in 2005, the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company said in a statement yesterday. New York-based Barnes & Noble Inc., the world's largest book retailer, plans to release Harry Potter sales figures today.
"We've never had a book like this before,'' Borders Chief Executive Officer George Jones said in an interview. "It drives a whole lot of traffic into our stores.''
Ordering More
Asda, the supermarket chain owned by Bentonville, Arkansas- based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., sold almost all of its 500,000 copies this weekend, breaking store records, the company said.
"We've never seen anything like it,'' Asda spokesman Ed Watson said in a telephone interview in London. "This is our most successful book launch ever.''
The chain sold 97 percent of its inventory since it went on sale July 21, twice the rate of the previous book in the series, and is ordering more copies.
W.H. Smith Plc, the U.K.'s largest magazine retailer, sold "hundreds of thousands'' of books, said spokeswoman Sue Beaumont. The books sold at a rate of 15 copies a second in the first hours, she said. "We were expecting it to be hugely popular, and this is in line with our expectations,'' she said.
Advance orders for the book reached more than 2.2 million copies at Amazon.com Inc., the world's biggest online retailer, and more than 1.3 million at Barnes & Noble, a record for both retailers. Amazon said today it delivered almost 1.3 million copies on July 21 in its largest single-product distribution.
Harry's Franchise
The series has sold more than 325 million copies worldwide since 1997, making it the biggest children's book series ever. The first six books are on the U.K.'s all-time bestseller list, and three have made it to the U.S. bestseller list since 2001, according to New York-based Nielsen Media Research Inc.
Potter and his adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry also spawned a franchise that has generated billions of dollars in sales of DVDs, box-office receipts, soundtracks and licensed trademark goods, according to Nielsen.
Shares of Scholastic, which have fallen 5.7 percent this year, dropped 41 cents to $33.80 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading July 20. London-based Bloomsbury's shares rose 3 pence to 187 pence. They have declined 27 percent this year.
Fans Line Up
Sales of the book were helped by people like Donna Cappiello, who was among about 5,000 fans waiting for sales to begin after midnight July 21 at Barnes & Noble's Union Square store in Manhattan. She, her 14-year-old daughter Annalee and 10- year-old son Dylan bought a total of four copies -- one for each of them, plus a fourth copy for when the children are older, because the first three copies would be worn out, based on past experience, said Cappiello, 37, who lives in Brooklyn.
"Harry Potter is responsible for the literacy of my generation. I don't think any of the kids in my class would read if it wasn't for Harry Potter,'' said Annalee, wearing a black cape and hat.
To contact the reporters on this story: Katie Hoffmann in New York at
[email protected] ; Josh Fineman in New York at
[email protected]