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Your support makes all the difference.Facts and figures about the Harry Potter franchise of books and films, the latest of which is released Thursday:
- "Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone", the first book in the series by J. K. Rowling, was published in Britain in 1997. It has an initial print run of 1,000 copies. It is re-edited and translated.
- Since then, more than 400 million copies have been sold worldwide. The books have been translated into 69 languages, including Latin, and sold in 200 territories, Rowling's literary agents say. There are seven novels and three spin-off books.
- Rowling is worth about one billion dollars, according to the recently published Shanghai-based Hurun rich list.
- The three main stars of the films are also millionaires. According to The Sunday Times Rich List, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) has 42 million pounds (68 million dollars), Emma Watson (Hermione) has 22 million pounds (35 million dollars) and Rupert Grint (Ron) has 20 million pounds (32 million dollars).
- The first six films took 5.4 billion dollars at the box office worldwide, acording to industry sources. The very first, released in 2001, was the biggest grossing, taking almost one billion dollars on its own.
- Harry Potter has been turned into computer games - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is one of 17 games introduced on the new Xbox 360 motion-sensing controller Kinect last week - and fans can also buy merchandise from mugs to calendars, stamps to soft toys.
- The first theme park based on the series, "The Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter", opened in June 2010 in Orlando, Florida, where fans can tour Hogwarts castle, fly with Harry, ride on a dragon and eat exploding sweets.
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