Harry Potter's Real Magic Number

Because of an extremely loyal fanbase, careful franchise management, and a boost from the upcoming book release, Harry Potter got off to a best series start, grossing Warner Bros. $140 million domestically in five days (worldwide, it made $330 million). "Very few mega-franchises have this kind of immediate, bottom-line impact on a studio," analyst Tuna Amobi of Standard and Poor's told the LA Times. And if Saturday's release of the final provides a second wind, the film could be the first in the series to top $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales. However, that's drop in the Potter bucket, according to Ad Age, which takes a look at just how much the Harry brand is worth. Their total? $15 billion.

We totted up broad estimates of everything from book, box-office and soundtrack sales to ad time sold on TV airings of Potter films and even potential revenue from an upcoming theme park, and -- using Ad Age's magical math -- calculated the Potter economy in excess of $15 billion. That would put Harry in the same neighborhood as Michael Dell on Forbes' "World's Billionaires" list. He's twice as rich as Google's Eric Schmidt and three times wealthier than Sears' Eddie Lampert. (According to the list, "Potter" author J.K. Rowling is worth $1 billion.)

[Photo Credit: Courtesy of Everett Collection]