“Harry” Situation: Is Potter’s popularity declining?
Can you believe it’s been 12 years since J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was published? And nearly a decade since the release of the first movie adaptation? Enough jokes have been made about the maturation of now-grown stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, and with two films still left in the pipes, they’re sure to keep coming for at least the next couple years.
But what of this trend that compares eBay sales between July’s most recent film, Half-Blood Prince, and 2007’s Order of the Phoenix? Below is a two-year Terapeak trend for total sales in the Harry Potter Collectibles category:
Even if the text is a bit hard to read (we’re working on fixing this), you can see pretty clearly the two major sales points for the series: release date and the holidays. And while the disparity between the holidays (the two middle peaks) can be attributed to Order of the Phoenix’s DVD release, the difference between the two films’ theater releases is more than 2:1!
It should be noted that July 2007 also saw the release of Rowling’s final Potter book… but the decline in sales of related collectibles is still quite shocking. Is it a case of fans simply losing interest in the series? Is it possible that the series lost its luster when the books stopped coming out? Heck, we’re even wondering if it’s some kind of Twilight effect!
The next Potter film is slated for release in November 2010, with the final installment coming July 2011. Before then, however, comes Half Blood Prince’s DVD release… which will no doubt make for another interesting comparison!
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