In today’s time, Harry Potter is a very well-known and accepted cultural phenomenon. None can deny its effect on our social life. Harry Potter is now ruling every sector around the world from fantasy genre books to politics. Even studies about Harry Potter are going on. Ohio State University offers courses and modules dedicated to Harry Potter. This shows the impact of Harry Potter on pop culture. What an incredible effect it has over the world that this magical series has become a subject for the students to learn about.
In the beginning, Harry Potter was just a wizard boy created by a single mother, J.K. Rowling. Many publishers have turned her down, saying this is just gibberish writing. Not even children are going to like them. But who knew that the book they are turning down today will become a world-changing phenomenon? Once it was published by Bloomsbury it didn’t have to look back. The first book reached the top of the New York Times list of best-selling fiction in August 1999. Later, this novel sold 120 million copies, making it the fourth best-selling book of all time. Now this novel is ruling over the world with its magical appearance. People of all ages know about Harry Potter. They use Harry Potter phases, dialogues, and even slang words like Muggles (non-magical person).
The Rise of Harry Potter:
There are over 1 million words in the Harry Potter book series. Over 500+ million copies of Harry Potter books were sold in the whole world. In the first year, 200 copies were sold, and 300 copies went to the liberties all over the world. In two years of releasing the first book, it sold more than 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. In 2018, in the United States, Harry Potter’s fourth book sold 3 million copies on its first weekend. After this, each book broke the sales record set by the previous books. Every book made #1 on the bestseller list of USA Today. J.K. Rowling was the highest-paid author in 2016; she made a total of $95 million. This shows how much effect this novel has over the worldwide readers.
Harry Potter films have made a huge contribution to expanding the franchise as a worldwide cultural phenomenon. Every film was a blockbuster, and they presented the movie very well, even if it had a complicated theme like magic. In contrast to the Harry Potter books, it wasn’t that amusing to present the magic to the world, though they have visualized the films nicely, and many viewers who never read the books were able to learn about the magic of Harry Potter and were very much interested in it. These movies even attracted people who were never interested in the series. A survey found that 20% of people have read all the books and 32% of people have read at least one book of Harry Potter. In contrast, 25% of people had seen all the Harry Potter movies and 61% had seen at least one movie. This survey proves how much impact the movies had over the franchise of Harry Potter. Harry Potter movies even helped the franchise expand the tourism sector as many tourism spots were built after the shootings of the movies were done there. Such tourist spots are Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter, Hop-on-hop-off bus tour, London Transport Museum, Tower of London, etc.
Harry Potter’s Influence on Literature:
J.K. Rowling has successfully blended every type of element in the Harry Potter series and made it a unique writing piece that became a turning novel for the fantasy genre. In the beginning, before Harry Potter, there were many series, such as The Chronicles of Narnia. Technically, Harry Potter is not a YA novel but a middle-grade novel.
Harry Potter is mostly a middle-aged novel because of its story narrating style. This continues until the fifth book where we readers can find that Harry has a YA voice. At first many thought the book was a children’s book and adults were devouring it. But later on, everyone realized that the book is offering much more than just a children’s book can. The book offers a majestic world that any reader, child, adolescent, or adult can enjoy visiting. As for adult readers, Harry Potter is like candy that can be consumed by anyone and is very delicious. It feels like nostalgia that, as a child, everyone had enjoyed. Harry Potter even has enough deeper questions like morality, fascism, politics, depression, and love that an adult can easily read without making a fool out of them.
Harry Potter has changed the history of the fantasy genre in many ways that now it is nearly impossible to point out. For many years, the fantasy genre has been known as only child books or fun books that can only entertain children. Harry Potter has changed this thinking style and built up a different style where people of every age can enjoy the writings and novels of the fantasy genre. This set the fantasy genre on a new path to walk. It turned into a huge money-making way for many writers. After the Harry Potter fantasy genre became popular, many other series were released such as “Twilight”, “ The Hunger Games” and “Divergent.” Harry Potter can be called the reformer of the fantasy genre and its impact on pop culture is undeniable.
Impact on Film and Entertainment:
Harry Potter has a strong and recognizable influence on pop culture. So, it is natural that the movies and cinema industry were also shaped by the franchise. The 80s were a golden time for children’s fantasy movies, but none of the movies were blockbusters and rarely hit box office hits. At that time, Harry Potter made his debut on the silver screen, and amazingly, fantasy films became a profitable business. There were movies like The Chronicles of Narnia (2005-2010), Twilight (2008-2012), and The Hunger Games (2012-2015) that were blockbuster franchises.
The Twilight Saga, Percy Jackson, and The Hunger Games followed the techniques of Harry Potter. The most iconic rule they followed is ”the trinity”. Each franchise has a strong trinity whose bonding is so powerful that it flows throughout the movies. They made their characters as if they existed in normal human life, which also triggered them to become a successful franchise just like Harry Potter.
Harry Potter’s Digital Footprint:
There are many online platforms where fans are always active and engaging with the world of Harry Potter. Such activities help fans to interrogate each other and help the series grow its branches in every corner of the world. Fans even make their fanfictions where they write new stories based on Harry Potter and its characters. In this way, they can give their favorite character an ending that they would like for them. Some forums also help the fans with updated news from the franchises. These forums help fans to know about their favorite series and keep them up to date so when something new launches, fans can get that as fast as possible.
Social media is a free and less time-consuming platform where fans can interrogate their magical series in just a second. They can be a part of the magical world just by joining a group or page, and boom, they will find themselves in the world of muggles who are willing to admire the magical world of Harry Potter. Memes are a popular way for fans to engage with the world of Harry Potter. Memes are very useful and intellectual media for the fans to keep up the everlasting aura of the wizarding world of Harry Potter which shows how incredibly this novel has impacted pop culture.
Cultural References in Pop Culture:
Harry Potter is undoubtedly a cultural phenomenon, and many celebrities are huge fans of this franchise. Harry Potter has been used in many movies and series, such as Booksmart(2019), Get Him To The Greek(2010), and The Devil Wears Prada(2006).
Booksmart:
In this series, the two main characters, Molly and Amy, go to a party, and Molly builds up the courage to talk with her crush. Molly bonded with her crush by discussing which Hogwarts house they thought they would belong to.
Get Him To The Greek:
In this movie, Tom Felton, aka Harry’s most popular nemesis at Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy, plays a cameo role when Jonah Hill runs into him. Jonah keeps making Harry Potter references to Tom. Tom is annoyed as getting bombarded over and over by the Harry Potter fans is tiring for him. He just wants to live his life and enjoy his quality time that he totally can’t.
The Devil Wears Prada:
In this movie, the Harry Potter reference plays a big role in the plot. Miranda Priestly is known as a cranky boss. She asks Andy for the new Harry Potter books that haven’t been released yet. This is nearly an impossible task, which was done perfectly by Andy, who even managed to get two copies of the manuscript.
There are many TV shows like Friends, The Simpsons, Parks and Reactions, One Tree Hill, The Office: An American Workplace, etc., where Harry Potter references were proudly made by the characters.
The Harry Potter craze will never be down as its fans are growing every day. The franchises are also working on new additions to keep the magic alive. Many new additions of books or merchandise are helping the fans to live the life of a wizard. The themed parks also tickle the fan’s nostalgic memories of Harry Potter. Harry Potter became such a powerful cultural phenomenon even though Hogwarts does not exist. The magical world described by the author is unreal. However, the fans are determined to keep the flame burning for some people, this character is something more than just a fictional character. The meaning of the book is something deeper: social problems, family struggles, fascism, and politics such things are mentioned alongside the magics. The work of the Harry Potter book is so much better than other ordinary children’s books. It raises issues that are much more real in the actual world. It changes human views over such important issues as depression, overuse of power, antisemitism, etc this is one of the biggest reasons why it’s impacting on the popular culture.
