As you probably know, the final installment of the ever popular Harry Potter book series has come out last Friday. I was reading an interesting article on Business Week about the money behind the franchise and who is profiting. Apparently the lunch box and school supply market hasn’t been able to cash in successfully on the series. It seems that the only person who has really hit the jackpot was J.K. Rowling, the author of the books. I’m sure Scholastic isn’t too far behind her in profits, but when it comes to cashing in, according to Business Week, things haven’t been as easy as people had expected.

The movies have done well enough that Universal Studios will soon be dropping close to a half a billion dollars to create the “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” with Warner Bros by the end of 2009. Disney apparently lost out in the bidding for the rights to build such an attraction. If you ask me this seems like it will be enough of a draw that Disney should have made sure they won it. Ooops.

Harry Potter has certainly been a great example of pop culture success during the last several years. Regardless of whether or not lunch boxes and toys are making money,  the name has easily become more than just a household name by now. It has become a part of many people’s daily conversations. J.K. Rowling could easily have retired after just the first book. Now with seven full books out it’s safe to say that she will be doing just fine. Maybe she will move on to write other fantasy based books. Only time will tell.