Everything you need to know about Box Office 2001 can be summed up with two facts: The year’s highest-grossing movie was “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” The biggest flop was “Pootie Tang.” In short, family films rule! And 2002 is shaping up to be youngster-friendly, as well. “Ice Age,” a computer-animated feature that opened …read more!

Harry Potter may be all the rage in Moscow’s movie theaters, but until last summer the young English wizard was virtually unknown in Russia. Mikhail Markotkin is the man responsible for bringing Potter to Russia. Chairman of ROSMAN, the largest children’s book publisher in the country, Markotkin is the publisher of the Harry Potter series …read more!

This year’s National Book Fair attracted nearly 350,000 visitors, who purchased over two million books and magazines, organisers said. Harry Potter books were the most popular at the fair, which was held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre [Thailand]. The number of people visiting Alnwick Castle and Gloucester Cathedral have soared, according to official …read more!

Emma Watson has won a Young Artists Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film (Leading Young Actress). Also, for those who were wondering where Daniel Radcliffe’s name went (as he was nominated in several categories), a spokesperson from the Young Artists Awards told us that “Daniel’s representative’s asked for his name to be removed.” …read more!

One is a millionaire author who has become Britain’s wealthiest self-made woman, the other works as an office clerk. Yet the bond between the Harry Potter author, JK Rowling and her close friend Fiona Wilson, forged when they were both single mothers living in Edinburgh, is clearly a very strong one. The Scots-based writer has …read more!

It appears as though author Nora Roberts is the hottest seller right behind JKR in the US. Scotland has more millionaires than ever, with the 100 wealthiest sharing a record combined wealth of almost £10bn, according to a new survey of the country’s richest people. The top 100 richest people in Scotland, who had a …read more!

Thanks to reader Sandy: Today my family attended a special concert for children in by the Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra which included the national premiere of John Williams’ Symphonic Suite from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Here is a link from the local paper ). It was really an enjoyable event with a magical master …read more!

Reader Katie let us know that the Chapters.ca website has posted the following: “We can hardly wait – the fifth of Harry’s high-flying adventures will appear in the fall of 2002! Sign up here to receive e-mail notices as we find out more about this exciting event!” More at the link.

Daniel Radcliffe will appear Wednesday, 10 April, on David di Donatello, an Italian movie award show. According to this article (written in Italian): “[among the show’s highlights,] the exclusive appearance of the Harry Potter of the silver screen, young actor Daniel Radcliffe, who will be speaking from the set at Oxford where he is shooting …read more!

From the editorial pages of the Boston Globe: “In his dreams, President Bush is Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter’s caring headmaster who left no wizard behind. Unlike Dumbledore, Bush wants us to believe in a wand with no zap, a Gringotts with no cash, and a train platform called Nine and Three Quarters, not for sorcery …read more!