Online buzz for Harry Potter in general has seen spikes around the movie trailer and impending opening of the movie.

First Film Drives Biggest Spike
During the four weeks following the November 2001 big screen debut of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, sales of the corresponding book more than tripled over the previous four weeks to 956,700 units. 223,200 Sorcerer’s Stone books were sold in the week of the movie’s debut alone. The excitement carried over to the entire series, with all four books then out seeing a sizeable increase in sales.

The most recent Harry Hollywood incarnation, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, had a less dramatic effect on the book brand at its July 2009 box office debut. All Harry Potter books saw an uptick in sales but on a lower scale: Half-Blood Prince sold 50,400 units the four weeks following the movie’s debut, compared to the 33,800 books purchased the four weeks prior.

2010 and Beyond?

The Harry Potter films demonstrate the close relationship between book and movie sales. A hugely popular book creates a ready market for an adapted film.  At the same time, movies can have a dramatic effect on the sales of their book counterparts. However the scale of impact of film adaptations on book sales and their ability to introduce new readers to the book series can diminish over time as a film series draws to an end.

Warner Brothers’ comedy “Four Christmases” dropped to second place, with $13.3 million over the weekend and an $88 million cumulative take over three weeks of release.

Summit’s vampire romance “Twilight” finished third over the weekend, with an $8 million performance and a $150.1 million cumulative take over four weeks of release.

Industrywide, year-to-date totals for 2008 are outpacing the same portion of 2007 grosses by 1%, at $9.01 billion.

Below are Box Office totals for the weekend of December 12-14, 2008 from Nielsen EDI.

Summit Entertainment’s vampire film “Twilight” took in an estimated $13 million to reclaim second place from Disney’s CG-animated feature “Bolt”, which earned an estimated $9.7 million to finish third.

Below are Box Office totals for the weekend of December 5-7, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.

The Vince Vaughn-Reese Witherspoon vehicle has taken in an approximately $46.7 million since arriving in theaters on Wednesday, one of three films positioned to make full use of a holiday-lengthened weekend.

Disney’s CG-animated feature “Bolt” had a saw a surprising 1% increase from its opening totals a week earlier, registering $26.6 million to rise from third to second place at the Box Office. The impressive comeback performance boosted the film’s 10-day cumulative take to $66.9 million.

Summit Entertainment’s youth-targeting vampire film “Twilight” attracted $26.4 million in total gross over the weekend, dropping it from first to a third-place performance.

Below are Box Office totals for the weekend of November 28-30, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.

“Quantum of Solace,” the latest James Bond film from Sony and MGM, came in second over the weekend with $27.4 million, shaping a 10-day cumulative take of $109.5 million.

Across the industry, the overall weekend take of $169 million marked a 4% overall improvement over the same time frame last year, according to Nielsen EDI. That makes eight of the last nine weekends that overall industry takes have beaten year-over-year comparisons.

Below are Box Office totals for the weekend of November 21-23, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.

The family comedy “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,” from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount, registered $36.1 million to land in second place over the weekend.

Overall, the weekend’s $154 million in collective boxoffice across the industry marked a 48% improvement over the same weekend last year, according to Nielsen EDI.

Below are Box Office totals for the weekend of November 14-16, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.

Universal’s new R-rated comedy “Role Models” finished second with a $19.3 million debut that also comfortably topped projections.

Overall, the weekend’s $148 million industrywide total represented a considerable 30% improvement over the same weekend last year, according to Nielsen EDI. 

Below are Box Office totals for the weekend of November 7-9, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.

The Weinstein Co.’s R-rated comedy “Zack and Miri,” starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, opened with $10.7 million.

In overall Box Office results, the weekend’s $84 million gross was a considerable 37% decline from grosses rung up over the same weekend last year, according to Nielsen EDI. 

Below are Box Office totals for the weekend of October 31- November 2, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.

“Saw V”, the new horror sequel from Lionsgate, pulled in an impressive $30.5 million over the weekend to finish in second place.

Overall, industry-wide grosses at Box Office for the weekend reached $135 million – a 32% improvement over the same weekend last year.

Below are Box Office totals for the weekend of October 24-26, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.

The total was Disney’s biggest October opening, easily surpassing opening weekend earnings for “Ladder 49″ ($22.1 million) in 2004.

DreamWorks/Paramount’s thriller “Eagle Eye” had another impressive showing in its second weekend, taking in an estimated $17.7 million. 

Below are box-office totals for the weekend of October 3-5, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.