News and Views: Harry Potter Returns! Is Your Collection Ready?

Friday, November 19, 2010

Harry Potter Returns! Is Your Collection Ready?

To quote TIME.com, “we've been through a lot, we Potterites.” J.K. Rowling’s first book in the legendary septology released thirteen years ago, and since then, the world has experienced Potter-mania with nine years of cinematic glory, stunning film scores and soundtracks, encyclopedias and wikis, slews of fan clubs, thousands of blogs and websites (including the hilarious AverageWizard.com), and video games.

Just this past year, Universal Studios in Orlando fulfilled the dreams of Potterites everywhere and turned the world beyond Muggles into a reality. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened on June 18, 2010 and features rides, restaurants, merchandisers, and live shows. The park’s flagship attraction, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, whisks riders “through scenes and environments in and around Hogwarts Castle from the various books and films of the Harry Potter series.”¹

The series’ iconic sport Quidditch has also become a reality. According to TheStarPress.com, Quidditch has taken off across college campuses throughout the U.S. While athletes can’t fly like they do in the books and films, they still “must ride their brooms during the game, so to speak, for their plays to be counted.” Quidditch has started to extend beyond intramural college sports, taking off worldwide, especially in the UK and Canada. There’s even an International Quidditch Association who just hosted their fourth Quidditch World Cup.

In addition to real-life Quidditch matches, Wizard Rock, a rock music genre characterized by bands’ humorous performances and songs about the Harry Potter universe, blossomed out of the series’ fandom. According to a TIME.com article about the original Wizard Rock band, Harry and the Potters, “Wizard rockers dress like Hogwarts students. They play at conventions and clubs and wizard-rock festivals.” According to Wizrocklopedia.com, as of 2010, there are over 750 Wizard Rock bands worldwide.

And while J.K. Rowling has promised Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe that there will be no more Potter films even if there are more books², there’s no doubt that the iconic franchise has ingrained itself in popular culture as well as literary and cinematic history. The series experienced a historical 10-year-run on The New York Times bestsellers list.³ In fact, the books initially clogged the fiction list for so long that the New York Times ended up creating a separate list for children’s fiction.⁴

According to Box Office Mojo, when not adjusted for inflation, Harry Potter is the highest grossing film series of all time, raking in over $5.4 billion worldwide, and the franchise’s first six films are among the 30 highest earning movies worldwide. With each film and book, the Potter mania has intensified, igniting the development of supplemental materials, like interactive DVD games (The Harry Potter DVD Game), tribute albums (Harry Potter Piano Tribute), biographical and explorative DVD programs (Discovering the Real World of Harry Potter), and guides and analyses on audiobook (A Parent's Guide to Harry Potter).

With the first part of the final film—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—hitting theaters today, we want to make sure your library is prepared for the surge in Potter mania. To rev up your library’s selection of Harry Potter films, audiobooks, scores, and soundtracks, visit MidwestTapes.com and select the Harry Potter Collection panel to shop all our Harry Potter franchise titles.