--- title: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Has Sold 4 Million Copies description: In the first week after its release, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child sold more than 4 million copies in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. canonical: https://time.com/4446736/harry-potter-cursed-child-4-million-copies/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-10T16:44:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:16.093Z article:section: Ideas og:title: 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' Has Already Sold 4 Million Copies og:description: And that's just the print editions og:url: https://time.com/4446736/harry-potter-cursed-child-4-million-copies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5118a1df121a72a6/6988a1dabc6cfcae0e3de333/harry-potter-cursed-child.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: ''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'' at bookstores og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' Has Already Sold 4 Million Copies twitter:description: And that's just the print editions twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5118a1df121a72a6/6988a1dabc6cfcae0e3de333/harry-potter-cursed-child.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Harry Potter and the Cursed Child_ Has Already Sold 4 Million Copies ## Video: Watch Fans Wait In Anticipation At The "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" Preview [Watch (HLS stream): Watch Fans Wait In Anticipation At The "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" Preview](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yytta6aH.m3u8) (0:59)  _Published 2016-06-08_ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Aug 10, 2016 4:44 PM UTC  Copies of British author J.K. Rowling's latest book, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, on display at a bookstore in New York, United States on August 3, 2016. Copies of British author J.K. Rowling's latest book, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, on display at a bookstore in New York, United States on August 3, 2016.Volkan Furuncu—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Aug 10, 2016 4:44 PM UTC [_Harry Potter and the Cursed Child_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1338099132/?tag=timecom-20) may not have had the same level of hype as the seventh book in J.K. Rowling’s series, [_Harry Potter and the_ _Deathly Hallows_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0545139708/?tag=timecom-20), but by any measure, the script-book’s release has been a massive commercial success: in the first week after its release, it sold more than [4 million copies](http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2016/08/10/harry-potter-cursed-child-sales/) in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Scholastic published _Cursed Child_ in hardcover in the U.S. and Canada, and has sold 3.3 million copies. Little, Brown published the script, which is by Jack Thorne based on a story by himself, Rowling and director John Tiffany, in the U.K., where it has sold almost 850,000 copies. Sales figures have not yet been made available for the e-book format, which was published by Pottermore, Rowling’s digital platform. According to the Wall Street _Journal_, the new book has even worked as a kind of [Resurrection Stone](http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Resurrection%5FStone) for previous Rowling volumes: This week’s bestseller list also includes [_Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/059035342X/?tag=timecom-20) and [_The Tales of Beedle the Bard_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0545128285/?tag=timecom-20), a companion book to the series. \[[_WSJ_](http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2016/08/10/harry-potter-cursed-child-sales/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4446736/harry-potter-cursed-child-4-million-copies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4446736/harry-potter-cursed-child-4-million-copies/"},"headline":"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Has Already Sold 4 Million Copies","datePublished":"2016-08-10T16:44:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:55:16.093Z","description":"And that's just the print editions","url":"https://time.com/4446736/harry-potter-cursed-child-4-million-copies/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5118a1df121a72a6/6988a1dabc6cfcae0e3de333/harry-potter-cursed-child.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5118a1df121a72a6/6988a1dabc6cfcae0e3de333/harry-potter-cursed-child.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'' at bookstores","caption":"''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'' at bookstores","creditText":"Volkan Furuncu—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4446736/harry-potter-cursed-child-4-million-copies/","name":"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Has Already Sold 4 Million Copies"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch Fans Wait In Anticipation At The \"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child\" Preview","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/yytta6aH/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-06-08T21:47:34.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yytta6aH.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4446736/harry-potter-cursed-child-4-million-copies/","duration":"PT59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4446736/harry-potter-cursed-child-4-million-copies/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```