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  3. Call it the curse of Hogwarts. It turns out that—at least for some in the wiz

Call it the curse of Hogwarts. It turns out that—at least for some in the wiz

游客2023-12-22  26
问题    Call it the curse of Hogwarts. It turns out that—at least for some in the wizarding world—it’s tough to make money out of magic. Harry Potter has fans clamoring in excitement as the seventh and last book in J. K. Rowling’s hit series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, lands worldwide on July 21. With the fifth movie due out in weeks and the recent announcement of an Orlando theme-park attraction that could cost half a billion dollars, Pottermania is at an all-time high.
   But what should be a pot of gold for Harry’s business partners is turning into an empty cauldron for many of them. The most successful literary brand in recent history has made its author a billionaire, but others have not fared so well. Retailers, spellbound by the chance to reach millions of Potter-obsessed customers, are cost-cutting for market share to the point where many stand to lose money. For book publishers, the tsunami distorts results in Potter release years, creating wild share-price swings and a distraction from other parts of the business. Even Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., which has made billions off the Harry Potter movies, saw sales and profits drop last year and in the first quarter without a fresh Potter offering in the mix.
   Potter’s main publisher, which has sold more than 350 million copies worldwide, is now in peril. Scholastic Corp., which has US rights, will never speak ill of the boy wizard whose last book accounted for 8% of revenues and an estimated one-third of profits in the fiscal year that ended in May, 2006. It’s planning a record 12 million print run this time. But analyst Drew Crum of Stifel, Nicolaus&Co. says the children’s book division often does better in off-Potter periods.
   In any case, it’s easy to understand why the Potter brand is so seductive. Warner Bros. pumped out some disappointments last year, such as the thriller Lady in the Water, helping push movie revenues down by 17%. But Potter brings the magic all back. The company has made billions off the franchise and stands to make billions more as it rolls out movies and DVDs in the coming years. Unlike bookstores, movie theaters don’t slash admission prices when a new Potter film comes out. That said, the $974 million worldwide box office gross for the first Harry Potter movie {Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)stands at 9% more than the $895 million gross for the most recent film in 2005, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. And that’s amid rising ticket prices.
   Even if Harry Potter leaves a trail of profit-starved vendors and Potter-addicted producers in its wake as the series wraps up next month, the infatuation is unlikely to die. That’s what Emerson Spartz, founder of the popular fan site MuggleNet.com, is betting on. Spartz, a University of Notre Dame sophomore who launched the site in 1999 at the age of 12, gets more than 1 million hits a day. He’s now pulling in "a six-figure income" from ads and his best-seller, MuggleNet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7. He hopes to mimic the fan base that’s grown around The Lord of the Rings and has no plans to close down the site. [br] The sentence "...what should be a pot of gold for Harry’s business partners is turning into an empty cauldron..."(Para. 2)implies that Harry’s business partners are______.
选项 A、appreciating gold
B、owning cauldron
C、suffering loss
D、pondering over how to make money
答案 C
解析
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