Mastering the Art of Mixing Bookshelf with Silver Screen

Nielsen Wire — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:23:51 +0000

It’s not uncommon for a popular book title or series to go from the shelf to the big screen (Harry Potter, Twilight and The DaVinci Code). While those titles enjoyed notoriety prior to their movie debut, a lesser-known and less-recent book, Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, has been introduced to a new generation as the ‘star’ of the summer release Julie & Julia.

Based on the books My Life in France by Julia Child and Julie and Julia by Julie Powell, the film version Julie & Julia has helped boost book sales of all three titles from year-over-year. Originally published in 1961, Mastering the Art of French Cooking was a relatively low-key title with hardcover sales hovering around 10,000 units for the past few years, but sales have now skyrocketed to 158,000 units year-to-date. The combined paperback and hardcover sales of My Life in France and Julie and Julia also took dramatic leaps, 40,000 units sold last year to 264,000 in 2009 and 17,000 to 336,000, respectively.

Released in August, Julie & Julia ranked number #2 at the box office during its opening weekend grossing $20 million, and has increased its domestic total to $90.6 million and counting.

Overall cookbook sales are also on the rise as the genre is up nearly 9 percent year-over-year with 8.2 million units sold in 2008 to just over 9 million this year.

Sales by U.S. Market
The top ten markets based on year-to-date sales of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” account for 40% of the title’s total with sales in New York and Los Angeles, the nation’s top two book markets, making up 16% of that tally.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking Top 10 U.S. Markets by Sales (in units sold)
DMA	YTD Sales (in units)
New York, NY	12,460
Los Angeles, CA	11,109
SF-Okland-San Jose	7,561
Chicago, IL	6,027
Seattle-Tacoma, WA	5,354
Washington, DC	5,051
Boston, MA	4,585
Philadelphia, PA	4,084
Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX	3,837
Houston, TX	3,458
Source: The Nielsen Company

While sales of the cookbook were up in all markets, the three markets with the largest year-over-year percent increase include Shreveport, Flint-Saginaw-Bay City and Wilkes-Barre-Scranton.

Harry Potter: Wizard of All Media vs. Twilight Vampire

Nielsen Wire — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:57:07 +0000

With millions of copies sold, the Harry Potter book series does more than magically fly off the shelves, it has also been a force at the box office, on television, on the web, and even at the record stores. Similarly, a recent book series and film franchise, Twilight, has shown an ability to not only sell books, but also have an impact on the big screen and iPods as its brooding soundtrack has outsold the movie scores of the young wizard head to head. And while web buzz on Harry Potter still rules, The Nielsen Company has long known the power of the sci-fi and vampire community online.

As the sixth movie in the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is released this week, The Nielsen Company has prepared an overview of the impact of the two series across media.

Book Sales*

*Includes all formats of the book (i.e. hardcover, paperback, audio, etc.). Does not include sales prior to BookScan launch Janaury 2001.

Box Office

The first movie in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, opened on 11/16/01 bringing in $90.1 million in its opening weekend, and going on to haul in a total of $317.6 million domestically. The most recent release, 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, had the largest opening day total of the series with $44.2 million on Wednesday 7/11/07. With each movie in the series debuting at #1 on its opening weekend and raking in $200+ million in the U.S, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has some pretty big goblets to fill.

Twilight has also proved popular among moviegoers as the first installment of the series took in $69.9 million and the top spot at the box office in its opening weekend and a domestic total of $191.4 million.

Soundtrack

Although both franchises include big-budget theatrical releases, the style of their soundtracks is worlds apart. The Harry Potter soundtracks play more like the movie’s score with noted composer John Williams authoring the first three soundtracks in the series which have combined album sales of over a million copies to-date. Twilight’s soundtrack includes a compilation of songs performed by popular artists – film’s star Robert Pattinson even recorded an original track – and has sold just over 2.1 million copies since its release.

Television

So far this year Harry Potter movies have aired a total of 33 times on cable nets ABC Family, Disney Channel, HBO and Cinemax with ABC Family claiming four out of the five most-watched telecasts.

Online Buzz

Buzz tracking the two franchises shows that Harry Potter still dominates buzz, even amid the week where the Twilight movie is making its debut in the fall of 2008. [click to enlarge buzz graph]