Harry Potter at 20: What makes JK Rowling's creation a money making machine

Potter and his world continue to amaze and make money

'The wand chooses the wizard, Mr Potter," said Garrick Ollivander to Harry Potter when he visited Ollivanders (makers of fine wands, since 382 BC) for the first time in 1997. Twenty years later, in 2017, a kid does not need to wait for Hagrid to arrive and take him or her to Diagon Alley to purchase their first wands. He or she only needs to pester their parents for it and they can buy it for them, off Amazon. Even an Elder Wand replica can be bought for Rs 1,500. Should a Gryffindor scarf or Hogwarts robes or even a Sorting Hat interest you, they can be easily bought on the internet.
 

JK Rowling's manuscript had been rejected by eight publishers before Bloomsbury Publishing offered her an advance of £ 2,500 for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first in the series of seven books. The story goes that Rowling had written the book sitting in cafes in Edinburgh where she was living with her daughter, on benefits. Bloomsbury itself couldn't have known that the book it was publishing would transform not only the company but publishing as an industry.

Established in 1986 by Nigel Newton, Bloomsbury had a turnover of £11 million in 1995 which rose to £14 m in 1997 but thanks to Rowling's books rose to £21 m in 1999. In just two more years, it went up to £61 m in 2001, crossing a £100 m in 2005. It helped establish Bloomsbury as the most important publisher in the children's books category. Scholastic Press, an American publisher bought the American rights for $ 105,000 in 1998, by which time the first two books had been published in the UK. The seven Harry Potter books (excluding the spin-offs) have so far, sold more than half a billion books in 73 languages globally.

The books did not just lead to a windfall for the writer and publisher, it changed the publishing industry. Till the boy wizard took the world by storm in the late 1990s, it was widely believed that children did not read books anymore. They were said to be more interested in cartoons and video-games. Not only did Harry Potter disprove this notion, it helped save reading as a habit. As Harry Potter became more and more successful, it rejuvenated the children's book genre. It gave publishers the confidence that kids were willing to read even bulky books as long as they found them engaging. Publishers and authors rushed to find the 'next' Harry Potter, it led to more and more children's books being published. The Potter books forced New York Times to add a separate children's bestseller list as the regular list was crowded by Rowling's books. On their own, these books ended up making reading cool for a generation of children. Even though initially targeted at children's between ages 8 and 12, the books ended up creating a new crossover sub-genre as they were loved not only by children and teenagers but also by adults.

The books became a marketing phenomenon as well. Release date parties, special launch events were associated with the books as children and teenagers queued up to buy the books on the date of their launch, often in Potter clothing, making books cosplay a thing.

The rights to make films based on the first four books were bought by Warner Brothers in 1999 for about £1 m. The production was to be done by Heyday Films, a young company that had only one feature film to its credit. Rowling's condition when selling the rights, was that the principal cast be British. Steven Spielberg was in talks to direct the film but later dropped out. Harry Potter films gave Hollywood a lesson in keeping production costs down. It was produced at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire, England. It had been used to make Rolls Royce cars and helicopter engines in the past. It had also been used as an airplane hangar. At Leavesden, Heyday created a film making factory as it established sets. Unlike Hollywood, the sets were allowed to stay at Leavesden for ten years and all the films were shot on the same sets, which helped keep the costs down. Heyday was established as a respectable name thanks to the Potter films and even went on to produce the Oscar Award winning film Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who also directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

The seven Potter books were made into eight films for a total budget of $1.2 billion. The first film was released in the year 2001, while the eighth part was released 10 years later. They made $7.7 billion in theatres worldwide with a per film average of $965.4 million (boxofficemojo.com). Rowling's creation changed the fortunes of the film production company and led to changes in the film industry as well; just like it had transformed the publishing industry. With the success of Harry Potter, Hollywood jumped on the copycat bandwagon. Old classics in the children's fantasy genre were revived to try and recreate the Potter magic at the box office. This included films like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Golden Compass (based on Philip Pullman's books).

The Harry Potter franchise is the most successful movie franchise in movie history. According to CNBC, the total value of the franchise had been $25 billion till October, 2016. This included DVD sales, rental collections, book sales, box office collections and toy sales. Toy sales accounted for more than $7.3 billion in revenue. In the first year after the release of the first Potter film, the official toy merchandiser, Mattel, sold toys worth $160 mn.

The theme parks rights for Harry Potter were won by Universal Parks and Resorts. It operates three theme parks in Orlando, Hollywood and Japan, named as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Johnson & Johnson had introduced Harry Potter bathroom products, Fossil made Potter watches and Electronic Arts made Potter video game.

It is a testament to the strong interest in Harry Potter and his world that made Warner Bros. and Rowling team up again in 2013 for the first film in the Fantastic Beasts series. In October, 2016, Rowling announced that it will be a five film series. The first film was released in November, 2016. Coming five years after the last Potter film was released, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them made $815 mn at the box office globally.

In 2016, NBC Universal bought the TV rights for the 8 Harry Potter films for an eight year period between 2018 and 2025. The deal is estimated to be worth $200 mn. 

Richard Linklater started filming his masterpiece, Boyhood, in the year 2002 and ended shooting in 2013. It is a film about growing up. Linklater managed the difficult task of having the same actors portray the roles over the long period of 11 years. The Harry Potter books and films are also about growing up. They are about Harry and his friends growing up to face the challenges in life. While there have been other books and films about this theme, there perhaps has never been a time when the readers, audience and industries also came of age together with the books, like they did with Rowling's world.

Twenty years later the world continues to be fascinated by Harry Potter and Hogwarts, as if a muggle saw a wizard flying on a broom, and it pays to watch. 

Twitter: @bhayankur