Harry Potter Series Has Generated More Than $1.6B in Disc Sales, Report Claims

The boy wizard is moving massive quantities of DVDs and Blu-rays in a difficult home entertainment market, analysts say

Harry Potter is cinematic gold bullion.

The final film in the mega-grossing series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," shattered box office records last weekend after debuting to north of $478 million worldwide.

But that's just a taste of the spoils to come if the bespectacled wizard's performance on DVD and Blu-ray is any indication.

Thus far, the first seven films in Warner Bros. boy-wizard franchise have banked some $1.63 billion in domestic disc sales, according to new estimates from the media research firm IHS Screen Digest.

That heady number doesn't even count the additional $150 million that "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" is still expected to generate on home video in North America. Also, importantly, it doesn't take into account the hundreds of millions of dollars more the series has grossed in foreign home entertainment rentals and sales.

All told, the first six films in the series shipped an estimated 89 million video units in their initial releases to the U.S. video market during the past eight years, IHS reports.

Theatrically, Potter has lapped James Bond as the most lucrative franchise in movie history, having already grossed more than $6.8 billion worldwide through Tuesday. 

Here's a look at the numbers IHS came up with:

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