Harry Potter: The End

Harry Potter: The End

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 8:54 AM

From Meryl.net

Who will benefit from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and the series in the short term and long term? This previous post discusses how killing Harry could potentially hurt future sales once the current popularity dies down.

People still buy Lord of the Rings though the series is old by today’s standards. I wonder if the movies will cut into the sales of the books as people might choose to skip the books and go for the movies. Could that happen to the Harry Potter series as all seven books will eventually be available as a series of movies?

Death and Spoilers (no spoilers here)
If Harry should die, would the next generation buy Harry Potter knowing this? It’ll be hard not to find out about a main character’s death or ending twist long after the last book’s release date.

Unsurprisingly, a photocopy of the entire book appeared online as The Dallas Morning News (might require free registration) explains without spoilers. How will this affect sales? I don’t think it will hurt sales much as fans want a hard copy to hold in their hands and flip page by page. I have no interest in reading the entire book online even if it means finding out what happens a few days sooner. Mugglenet and Leaky Cauldron ask fans not to leak anything, but Mugglenet issues a warning that comments could contain spoilers.

Young Fans and Future Generations
My middle child looks forward to reading the book with us. My little one is only four, so he has yet to hear or see Harry Potter. Will he want us to read the books to him? Will he read them himself? Or will he just take the easy way out and watch the movies? The movies only capture a portion of each book since the books have too much happening to squeeze into movie format.

That’s one thing the movies do well — they don’t try to capture everything. The writers and directors try to tell a tight story with key parts covered (as far as we know) instead of trying fit in all the elements.
Another key point in how the book ends is the young fans. Kids start reading the series around age nine. How could an adverse ending affect these kids? Adults want surprises and twists, but kids want to believe Harry wins.
So could the ending hurt or benefit the book publishers? The movie makers? The young fans?