THERE have been two seismic events in popular culture this year. The first was the release of J. K. Rowling’s conclusion to her wildly popular Harry Potter series. The final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, rang up about $170 million in sales in the United States . . . on its first day. The second event, which occurred in late September, was the release of Microsoft’s unbelievably popular computer game “Halo 3.” It rang up almost exactly the same one-day sales in the United States as Potter.
The accompanying chart puts the sales of these two products in perspective. On their first days, Potter and “Halo 3” outsold the opening weekend for the hottest movie of the year, the entire season of ticket sales for the New York Yankees, and even the first weekend of the iPhone. If we run the sales totals forward, the numbers get even more striking. Microsoft is rumored to expect about $1 billion in “Halo 3”-related sales in the coming year.
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