Achievements
Cultural impact
Fans of the series were so eager for the latest series release that bookstores around the world began holding events to coincide with the midnight release of the books, beginning with the 2000 publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The events, commonly featuring mock sorting, games, face painting, and other live entertainment have achieved popularity with Potter fans and have been highly successful in attracting fans and selling books with nearly nine million of the 10.8 million initial print copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold in the first 24 hours.[72][73] The series has also gathered adult fans, leading to the release of two editions of each Harry Potter book, identical in text but with one edition's cover artwork aimed at children and the other aimed at adults.[74] Besides meeting online through blogs, podcasts, and fansites, Harry Potter super-fans can also meet at Harry Potter symposia. The word Muggle has spread beyond its Harry Potter origins, used by many groups to indicate those who are not aware or are lacking in some skill. In 2003, Muggle, entered the Oxford English Dictionary with that definition.[75] The Harry Potter fandom has embraced podcasts as a regular, often weekly, insight to the latest discussion in the fandom. Apple Inc. has featured two of the podcasts, MuggleCast and PotterCast.[76] Both have reached the top spot of iTunes podcast rankings and have been polled one of the top 50 favourite podcasts.[77]
Awards and honours
The Harry Potter series have been the recipients of a host of awards since the initial publication of Philosopher's Stone including four Whitaker Platinum Book Awards (all of which were awarded in 2001),[78] three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes (1997–1999),[79] two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards (1999 and 2001),[80] the inaugural Whitbread children's book of the year award (1999),[81] the WHSmith book of the year (2006),[82] among others. In 2000, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was nominated for Best Novel in the Hugo Awards while in 2001, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won said award.[83] Honours include a commendation for the Carnegie Medal (1997),[84] a short listing for the Guardian Children's Award (1998), and numerous listings on the notable books, editors' Choices, and best books lists of the American Library Association, The New York Times, Chicago Public Library, and Publishers Weekly.[85]
Commercial success
The popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders. This success has made Rowling the first and thus far only billionaire author.[86] The books have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to the popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros., all of which have been successful in their own right with the first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ranking number four on the inflation-unadjusted list of all-time highest grossing films and the other four Harry Potter films each ranking in the top 20.[87][3] The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing of more than 400 additional Harry Potter products (including an iPod) that have, as of 2005, made the Harry Potter brand worth an estimated US$4 billion and J. K. Rowling a US dollar billionaire,[88] making her, by some reports, richer than Queen Elizabeth II.[89][90] However, Rowling has stated that this is false.[91]
The great demand for Harry Potter books motivated the New York Times to create a separate bestseller list for children's literature in 2000, just before the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. By June 24, 2000, Rowling's novels had been on the list for 79 straight weeks; the first three novels were each on the hardcover bestseller list.[92] On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows has broken its pre-order record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.[93] For the release of Goblet of Fire, 9,000 FedEx trucks were used with no other purpose than to deliver the book.[94] Together, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble pre-sold more than 700,000 copies of the book.[94] In the United States, the book's initial printing run was 3.8 million copies.[94] This record statistic was broken by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, with 8.5 million, which was then shattered by Half-Blood Prince with 10.8 million copies.[95] 6.9 million copies of Prince were sold in the U.S. within the first 24 hours of its release; in the United Kingdom more than two million copies were sold on the first day.[96] The initial U.S. print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.[97]
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