Twenty-First Century’s Best Venture

Twenty-First Century’s best venture is the Harry Potter franchise. Starting with a great set of thrilling stories, J.K. Rowling’s marvelous boy-hero has started off a whole generation of youngsters on paths of reading, courage, friendship, adventure, and Rowling herself, on a path of great riches.

Traditionally, Venture Capitalists did not finance content plays. But if you look at the numbers, one begins to wonder whether or not they should start … books, music, films, toys, games …

Projections: (BBC News)

“The global popularity of the books, films and games is estimated to have made the Harry Potter brand worth $1bn. More than 265 million copies of the books have been sold in 200 countries. Author J.K. Rowling, whose rise to fame in itself is a marketing executive’s dream, is reputedly now Britain’s wealthiest woman [not Queen Elizabeth]. Waterstone’s booksellers estimates that on the first day of its release, the Half-Blood Prince will sell at least two million copies in the UK and more than 10 million worldwide. Meanwhile, supermarket giant Tesco estimates that it will sell 300 copies a minute when the book finally goes on sale in the early hours of Saturday morning. ”

Actuals: (BBC News)

“The new Harry Potter book has beaten sales records on both sides of the Atlantic, selling almost nine million copies in its first 24 hours. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold 6.9 million copies in the US and more than two million copies in the UK, beating all previous Potter records. Estimates from Nielsen BookScan revealed 2,009,574 copies of Half-Blood Prince had been sold within 24 hours of release. US sales of the sixth Harry Potter book have generated more than $100m (£57m) in revenue across the weekend – more than the combined box office sales of hit films, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Wedding Crashers. ”

The first weekend’s sales numbers came out ahead of forecasts. Wonder how many ventures claim such performance?!

ps. Half Blood Prince, the new Harry Potter book is the best yet of this series!