The problem with any franchise is that while it can tootle along forever, it needs constant new material and activity to keep the cash meaningfully rolling in.
Lately new content for the Harry Potter franchise has dried up somewhat, and the new Wizarding World project, which finally went live in October, came too late for this financial report.
Nonetheless Pottermore chairman Neil Blair referenced the GBP 31.5 million revenue and £6.9 million pretax profit as demonstrating “another very good year”, highlighting “extremely strong” sales of the original Harry Potter series across e-books and in audio.
Although the results marked the second consecutive year of decline in revenue (after the previous release of new content), this was,
in line with management expectations, but (that) digital publishing sales benefited from more global distribution.
The Bookseller notes that,
Pottermore’s revenues, built principally from the publishing side, have now grown from £7m in 2015 to £15m in 2016 to 2017’s £40.3m, before falling back to £32.8m in the year to end-March 2018 during which period no new J K Rowling book content was produced.
Blair sumarised:
This was another very good year for Pottermore. Sales of e-books and digital audiobooks remain strong as the original Harry Potter series continues to find new audiences. Trading in the year to 31 March 2020 has, so far, been in line with management expectations. Sales of Harry Potter e-books and digital audiobooks remain extremely strong and I expect that the current financial year will deliver another good result. Our joint venture with Warner Bros is progressing well and I am very confident that the creation of Wizarding World Digital will deepen fan engagement.
Via The Bookseller.
Image Wizarding World
As Pottermore continues to embrace the digital opportunity so its global reach expands exponentially, and we can expect the Harry Potter phenomenon to enjoy a new lease of life in the 2020s as the company expands its digital footprint to parts of the world where the only realistic way to see the print editions is pirated copies.
