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Both stores offered a number of Potter-themed activities, including costume contests, trivia contests, word-games, and prize giveaways. Hastings offered special Harry Potter themed beverages in its Hard Rock Cafe, while Bookland had a costumed fortuneteller on hand to give party participants a glimpse into their future.
Bookland manager Cindy Hill said the book release parties are a great way to give customers a chance to display their own brand of Potter mania and win some cool prizes, including a copy of the latest book for the costume contest overall winner.
‘I think it went really well,’ said Hill. ‘Everyone seemed to have good time and there were some great costumes. The parties takes a lot of work and preparation, but we enjoy doing them.’
Alex Bell was the overall winner in the Bookland costume contest with her innovative costume depicting the Golden Snitch, the small golden ball that zips around while the seeker tries to catch it in the amazing game called Quidditch that is so much a part of the Harry Potter saga. Bell received a free copy of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ for her efforts.
Potter fans are well-known for their almost rabid devotion to J.K Rowling’s series of novels describing Potter’s year by year progress at Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. According to the BBC News Web site the first five Harry Potter books have sold more than 265 million copies in 200 countries and have been translated into 62 languages.
The books continue to break publishing records, exhibiting some pretty magical statistics for retailers, with most installments topping the performance of the one before. Britain’s WH Smith chain said the previous Potter tome, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,’ sold at an incredible rate of 13 copies per second overnight, breaking the record of the one before, ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,’ which sold eight copies per second when published in 2003.
The books have also created a motion picture industry first in that the series is arguably the first where the movies based on the works have been released in the same order as the books and, at least so far, with the same actors playing the central characters. In fact, much has been made of how delightful it’s been watching these young actors, Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Rupert Grint as Ron, and Emma Watson as Hermione, literally grow up on screen.
And indeed, the movies have been, perhaps not surprisingly, phenomenally successful in their own right. As of Monday, the latest installment, ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,’ had taken in $140 million in the U.S. alone, with another $190 in 44 other countries after it rolled out last Wednesday.