The money printing machines known as Star Wars & Harry Potter
May 31, 2007 – 11:42 ambguides.com is always good for a quote and a tidbit of knowledge. And since May 25, 2007 marked the 30th anniversary of the release of “Episode IV - A New Hope,” the first film in the “Star Wars” series, I thought this was relevant.
“You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you.”
George Lucas
American film director, created “Star Wars”
Whether you like or dislike the world of Star Wars, there is no disputing the impact it has had on the culture over the last 30 years with $4 billion in sales (Star Wars history below).
I’m not sure how this ranks against the Harry Potter series, since that includes strong book sales in addition to movies and merchandise, but according to an article from USA Today appropriately titled “Book industry will miss ‘Potter’”, the Harry Potter book sales alone have been 500 to over 850 million a year since 2000.
bhistory:
At the box office, the top sales performer (worldwide) for the series was “Episode I - The Phantom Menace” (1999), with $922,379,000 in ticket sales, according to IMDb.com. The rest of the series ranks like this…
2. “Episode III - Revenge of the Sith” (’05) - $808,700,000
3. “Episode IV - A New Hope” (’77) - $797,900,000
4. “Episode II - Attack of the Clones” (’02) - $648,200,000
5. “Episode VI - Return of the Jedi” (’83) - $572,700,000
6. “Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back” (’80) -
$533,800,000
Total worldwide box office sales for the series… $4,283,679,000.
Technorati Tags: Star Wars, Harry Potter, George Lucas
