Harry Impacts

Now that merchants have had some time to sift through the empty boxes, vacuum the floors from foot traffic, and figure out just what Hurricane Harry did to book sales, the numbers are staggering. The Associated Press is reporting that the New Harry Potter novel sold an astonishing 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince averaged better than 250,000 sale per hour.

Even though many merchants offered deep discounts on the $29.99 book (some reports even had merchants taking substantial losses on their sale prices) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince easily generated more than $100 million in revenue. That’s not only the richest opening in publishing history, but also topped the combined estimated income for the weekend’s two top movies Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Wedding Crashers.

Read the full AP report here.