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Cursed Child boosts Scholastic Corp revenues
Sales of www.thebookseller.com/news/cursed-child-clings-sixth-week-number-one-391956">Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has given US-based Scholastic Corp a huge boost, as the company has today posted a first quarter revenue increase of 48%.
For the period ending 31st August, total company revenues totalled $282.7m (£217.8m), compared to $191.2m (£147.3m) for the same period in 2015.
All three segments – children’s book publishing and distribution, education, and international – saw sales growth, especially children’s book, which, thanks to Harry Potter, had a 104% revenue increase to $137.8m (£106.1m).
The educational business experienced sales growth of 10% to $55.2m (£42.5m). Growth was driven by higher sales of classroom books, although it was partially offset by lower advertising revenues.
In the international division, which includes Scholastic UK, revenues totalled $89.7m (£69.1m), a 23% increase from the first quarter of 2015.
“Our strategy to simplify our businesses and focus on core growth opportunities delivered strong results in the first quarter of 2017 with comparable year-over-year gains in all three business segments" said Richard Robinson, chairman, president and c.e.o. of Scholastic Corp.
“Trade publishing was the standout in the quarter with the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two, the eighth story in the Harry Potter franchise, and, as anticipated, we recognized the most significant portion of the script book's sales in this quarter. We are looking forward to the release of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them original screenplay by JK Rowling late in the second quarter, as well as licensed publishing related to the Fantastic Beasts film and the original Harry Potter movies.
In the UK, Scholastic has the publishing rights to a series of Fantastic Beasts tie-in titles but not Cursed Child, which was released by Little, Brown.
