 "JK Rowling")
In 2012, Forbes dropped J K Rowling after eight years on its authoritative billionaires list, saying high British taxes and large charitable contributions had eroded her fortune.
Forbes may want to rethink that.
Last weekend, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — the first of a new, multifilm franchise, with a script by Rowling — opened in the United States to a strong $75 million weekend. (The international box office was close to another $150 million.) Hugely popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter attractions have opened at Universal Studio theme parks in Orlando, Florida, Hollywood and Osaka, Japan, as well as a Potter attraction at Warner Bros Studio Tour London.
The two-part drama Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a smash hit in London and is scheduled to open on Broadway in 2018. A book based on the play was an instant No 1 bestseller. Warner Bros recently licensed the television rights to the Harry Potter films to NBCUniversal for as much as $250 million.
Rowling is famously private, especially about her financial and business affairs. She denied being a billionaire after Forbes first anointed her, telling the television interviewer Katie Couric in 2005 that “I’ve got plenty of money, more money than I ever dreamed I would have. But I am not a billionaire.”
“It’s an impressive story,” said Steven N Kaplan, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an author of It’s the Market: the Broad-Based Rise in the Return to Top Talent, a study of wealth generation in the digital age.
“She struggled as a single mother,” he said. “Then, she created this amazing franchise. She had tremendous talent, and she’s reaping the rewards. People don’t mind that. What they resent is when chief executives get paid for failure.”
© 2016 The New York Times News Servic
