"Harry Potter" Book Beats Sales Records

(AP)  Harry Potter has cast a spell on readers throughout the world, who purchased 72.1 million copies of the boy wizard's final adventure, an industry data service said Monday.

Nielsen BookScan said the figures for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" were provisional; full and final figures were due to be released Tuesday.

The company said 2.6 million copies of "Deathly Hallows" were sold in Britain in the 24 hours after it went on sale in England at 7:01 p.m. EDT Friday. The figure breaks the previous record of just over 2 million copies held by the previous Potter volume, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." It includes sales from book stores, supermarkets, other retailers and Internet sites, but excludes sales to libraries, schools and institutions.

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Photos: Harry Potter Fans

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"Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final volume of J.K. Rowling's all-conquering fantasy series, sold 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale in the United States, according to publisher Scholastic Inc.

The book was released around the world Saturday in a carefully orchestrated operation that saw midnight book store openings and long lines of Potter-maniacs. Its initial print run was 12 million in the United States alone.

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It is amazing how much money this book generates, all 7 of them. I hope she does something decent with all this wealth? It also shows how overpriced books have become.

The Potter series will go down in literary history. I am sure the church will keep up its vendetta against the book. Much of what is in it is realistic, except the spirits coming out of the wands and the apparating totally.