BBC News Online: Entertainment: Arts

Film boosts Potter books

Harry Potter novels are dominating book sales

Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, the film version of which was released last month, sold 1.1 million copies this year - over 200,000 more than JK Rowling's third book, The Goblet of Fire, which is in second place.

Data from Whitaker BookTrack shows JK Rowling's books take up four out of the five places in the best-seller lists for the first 50 weeks of the year, and together they account for 3.5 million sales.

Bridget Jones's Diary - also turned into a film this year - is the only non-Potter book in the year's top five.

Even a £26 box set of Potter books sold more than 20,000 copies in the past week.

Sales of The Lord of The Rings novels are up too - the top seven places in this week's best seller chart are taken up by either Potter or Tolkien's fantasy classics.