Harry Potter Breaks Records, But Not at the Box-Office

While much of the recent hysteria surrounding Harry Potter has focused on the big screen arrival of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” it has been J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows” that has broken the records.

In its first 24 hours available at retailers ‘Order of the Phoenix’ sold over 8.3 million copies, an average of more than 300,000 copies per hour according to Scholastic Inc. Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic, compared the frenzy to another British invasion nearly half a century ago, “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.”

Borders Group Inc, which operates the giant book retailer Borders, sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide in its first day, surpassing the 850,000 copies of Rowling’s sixth installment “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” in 2005.

The 759-page “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” also registered more than one million sales in preorders from Barnes & Noble as well as Amazon.com

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