Potter: Petering or prolific; one of the tests of success is how well a video title can sustain first-week sales. (Observations and Opinions).(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)(Brief Article)

Video Business, June, 2002 by Hettrick, Scott

The Real Story: So now that the full reports are in from all of the biggest retailers for the opening weekend of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, how much did Warner Home Video exaggerate those first-week sales figures? Nearly every competitor was balking at Warner's claims of combined VHS and DVD sales of 9.36 million units.

Some were projecting that no more than 15 million units would be sold altogether by the end of the year. Now most of those competitors ate acknowledging that if Warner exaggerated, it wasn't by much, relatively speaking. Most estimate that somewhere between 8.8 million and 9.7 million were purchased, with much of the variation coming from the unknown number of units sold to the rental market, Blockbuster in...

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