Harry Potter Makes 2004 Guinness Book of World Records Twice

Harry Potter has made two records in the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records! They are:

WIDEST FILM RELEASE (page 171)

Heyday Films and Warner Bros’ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (USA/Germany 2002) had the widest release of any film in history when it opened on November 17 2002 in the USA on 8,500 screens (3,682 cinemas).

BEST SELLING CHILDREN’S BOOK SERIES IN A SINGLE YEAR (page 174)

In 1999 the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling (UK) sold more than 18.5 million copies in the USA and over 4.5 million copies in the UK and Commonwealth. In the same year, Rowling became the first novelist to have three titles occupying the top four slots (both hardback and paperback) of the New York Times bestseller list for 16 weeks (Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). The first title hit the bestseller list on September 27 1999 and was still there in April 2000. The second and third books in the series both debuted at number one on the list and by April 2000 were still in the top five.

In addition to these records in the 2004 book, Harry Potter also had an additional third record in the 2003 Guinness Book of World Records:

MOST CHARACTER VOICES IN AN AUDIO BOOK

In April 2003, British actor Jim Dale created and recorded 134 different and distinguishable character voices for the audio book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. “Jim did an absolutely beautiful job creating the voices,” said Executive Producer Orli Moscowitz. And Random House audio-book veteran David Rapkin attested: “I have never, not once, ever had the experience [Jim] provided with an amazing number of distinct, very different, and unique character voices.”

thanks to Matthew of Veritaserum