The Sunday Times of South Africa reported in August that the release of HBP shattered all previous records there, selling 40,000 copies in its first day. As of August 21 it had sold 65,000 copies, knocking Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code from its position as number one best seller.

Variety reports that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth film, will have a budget of more than $150 million. It also notes that this has little to do with salary: “‘Potter,’ [doesn’t] have a star with anything close to a $20 million payday.”

Artbox Entertainment, makers of the Harry Potter movie trading cards, recently let various retailers know that the new Goblet of Fire movie trading cards will be released on October 24th. We now have a photo of the collectible tin for the cards, as well as a photo of the individual card packs and display box. …read more!

These two photos were sent to us by Claire of RupertOnline.net. Thanks Claire! Cho Chang (huge) Cho Chang (medium) Cho Chang (small) McGonagall (huge) McGonagall (medium) McGonagall (small)

The stunning Dutch cover art of HBP has been released; click here to see it. Thank you Zweinstein Online and De Lekke Ketel!

Gamespot.com reviews the new GoF video game, saying “the artists are striving to make the characters look as close to their real-life counterparts as possible. The artists have also worked with the film’s production design to create a Hogwarts and a Tri-Wizard Tournament that are both highly evocative of the forthcoming movie.” Click here for …read more!

The HP Scene It? game went on sale today. You can play two flash HP games on the game’s home page here. Thanks Lizzie!

Geraldine from UniversHarryPotter.com let us know that they have posted a high res photo of the cover of the French edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince or “Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-Mele”, which you can see here. Thanks Geraldine!

JKRowling.com has been updated with a new Wizard of the Month for September (note: I sure could use his invention in my kitchen! 🙂 )

The brand new Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Lego sets are now available for purchase from Lego.com. These new Harry Potter Legos are shown on the cover of their new Shop at Home catalog, featuring a photo of the Graveyard Duel Scene with the Voldemort figure. The new sets are: * Rescue from …read more!