Harry Potter Charms the Entertainment Industry
The Nielsen Company Examines Harry Potter's Vast Impact on Books, Movies, Internet, Television, Music and Advertising

With the imminent release of the new Harry Potter movie, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” as well as the upcoming book release on July 21 of the seventh and final installment in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” The Nielsen Company today released a multi-dimensional overview into the young wizard’s strong impact on the entertainment industry. Here is a unique look at the Harry Potter effect.

• Book sales (Nielsen BookScan) - Since 1998, when Nielsen began measuring book sales in the United Kingdom, the six Harry Potter books have sold more than 22.5 million copies in the UK alone. Since 2001, the first year of the U.S. BookScan panel in the U.S., more than 27.7 million Harry Potter books have been sold in the U.S

• Box Office sales (Nielsen EDI) – Combined, the first four Harry Potter films have grossed more than $3.5 billion worldwide. The first film, “Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone,” is the fourth all-time highest grossing film worldwide .
• Advertising (Nielsen Monitor-Plus) - In the U.S., ad spend for all Harry Potter branded merchandise (including books, movies, DVDs and other promotional products) totals $269.1 million from 1998 to date. Outside of the U.S. from 2000 to date, $119.3 million was spent on total advertising for all Harry Potter branded merchandise in Canada, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, and the U.K.
• DVD/Video sales (Nielsen VideoScan) –All three Harry Potter DVDs/Videos – Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Prisoner of Azkaban – debuted at #1 and remained the #1 family film for the first 3 weeks of each release.
• Internet Traffic (Nielsen//NetRatings) – The Warner Bros. “Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix” Web site drew 446,762 unique visitors in May 2007.
• Internet Buzz (Nielsen BuzzMetrics) – On blogs, the final book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” is generating more “buzz” than the latest movie installment, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”
• Music sales (Nielsen SoundScan) – The four Harry Potter soundtracks combined have sold more than 1.1 million copies in the U.S. and almost 100,000 copies in Canada since the initial release back in October 2001. There have been a total of 180,000 downloads of individual songs that tied to the four Harry Potter soundtracks.
• TV ratings (Nielsen Media Research) – Since 2002, the Harry Potter movies have aired on U.S. television a total of 366 times.
• Video Game Popularity (Nielsen Games) – The “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” video game from Electronic Arts was listed as the number one game that active gamers would most like to purchase.
• Moviegoer Profile (Nielsen Cinema) - A recent survey of moviegoers shows 51% of persons age 12+ are aware that the new book is coming out next month. Twenty-eight percent of persons 12+ in the U.S. have read one or more of the previous Harry Potter books, and 15% have read all of the Harry Potter books-to-date.
• Consumer (ACNielsen) – More than $11.8 million has been spent by U.S. consumers on Harry Potter-licensed trademark cookies, candy and gum products since June 2002.

About The Nielsen Company
The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek), trade shows and the newspaper sector (Scarborough Research). The privately held company has more than 42,000 employees and is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com.

Remarks: A more detail report on the Harry Potter series in the US is available on request.