Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a PR nightmare, with the involvement of Johnny Depp (who has an alleged history of domestic violence) and Dumbledore being portrayed as “not explicitly” gay, but don’t hold that against the rest of the Potterverse. Especially the novels, which are still really good. And really popular: Sales of author J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series hit 500 million copies this week. That’s across “seven books in the series,” from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and “three companion volumes, in print and eBook versions.”
Here’s what official fansite Pottermore said about the milestone.
We think it’s fair to say that, 20 years and 500 million books later, Harry Potter still has the power to transport us to a whole new world within its pages. This is exactly why we’ll keep on reading them forever, passing them on for many generations to come. (Via)
The books have been translated into 80 languages; one in 15 people in the world own at least one of them (probably Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire because it’s the best — do not @ me); and Deathly Hallows is the fastest selling fiction book of all-time. It’s not the best-seller in the series, though: that honor belongs to Sorcerer’s Stone (slash Philosopher’s Stone), which has moved a reported 120 million copies. That puts it only 4.9 billion copies behind The Bible. Look out Adam and Eve, Lupin and Tonks are coming for you.
(Via Pottermore)