Londoner here, and it was nuts. Stories about the book, leaks about the story, stories about leaks about the story... these were in mainstream newspapers, often on the front page. It was a near-universal fandom.
It wasn't just 'stay up all night at bookshops' or 'every kid in costume' things - it was super mainstream. Everyone was into it. You'd see people on the underground, everyone carrying copies of the books, etc.
When Goblet of Fire came out, there were queues around the local Sainsburys to get copies. A lot of my - also adult - workmates would also bring their books into work, and we would sneak away for 'meetings' where we'd speed-read as rapidly as possible for an hour. It was amazing.
Sadly, I don't see that every happening again. Amongst other things: Amazon kind of killed it. The queues to get copies, the piles of books: these were not only 'bonding' activities, but they reinforced how BIG the phenom was. If anything ever happened like this again, it would involve a lot of cardboard boxes in the post, people privately reading, and then sharing on TikTok. Which obviously works, but even the upper limits of BookTok are still a long, long way from Pottermania.
There are other factors as well. Not to be an old dude, but the world is a lot more cynical now, and we're much crankier and more fragmented about our culture. It would be hard for any media property to achieve what Potter did when it came to being a breakthrough, universal obsession - much less another book.
Even, say, the heights of Game of Thrones or the MCU didn't quite do it - and those have the advantage of much more money behind them. Or look at, say, the infinite wealth and retail power of Amazon, and how much they spaffed on Rings of Power. That achieved maybe 1/1000th of a Pottermania. (It also wasn't as good, but still, it shows how hard it is manufacture this kind of fandom, even with platforms that big.)
It is sad, as - again, with rose-tinted glasses - I liked how Potter connected so many people. It felt like we were all enjoying the same thing, and you could talk about it with anyone. The world could use that again. (He says, sounding a lot like a shit Hallmark card.)
Londoner here, and it was nuts. Stories about the book, leaks about the story, stories about leaks about the story... these were in mainstream newspapers, often on the front page. It was a near-universal fandom.
It wasn't just 'stay up all night at bookshops' or 'every kid in costume' things - it was super mainstream. Everyone was into it. You'd see people on the underground, everyone carrying copies of the books, etc.
When Goblet of Fire came out, there were queues around the local Sainsburys to get copies. A lot of my - also adult - workmates would also bring their books into work, and we would sneak away for 'meetings' where we'd speed-read as rapidly as possible for an hour. It was amazing.
Sadly, I don't see that every happening again. Amongst other things: Amazon kind of killed it. The queues to get copies, the piles of books: these were not only 'bonding' activities, but they reinforced how BIG the phenom was. If anything ever happened like this again, it would involve a lot of cardboard boxes in the post, people privately reading, and then sharing on TikTok. Which obviously works, but even the upper limits of BookTok are still a long, long way from Pottermania.
There are other factors as well. Not to be an old dude, but the world is a lot more cynical now, and we're much crankier and more fragmented about our culture. It would be hard for any media property to achieve what Potter did when it came to being a breakthrough, universal obsession - much less another book.
Even, say, the heights of Game of Thrones or the MCU didn't quite do it - and those have the advantage of much more money behind them. Or look at, say, the infinite wealth and retail power of Amazon, and how much they spaffed on Rings of Power. That achieved maybe 1/1000th of a Pottermania. (It also wasn't as good, but still, it shows how hard it is manufacture this kind of fandom, even with platforms that big.)
It is sad, as - again, with rose-tinted glasses - I liked how Potter connected so many people. It felt like we were all enjoying the same thing, and you could talk about it with anyone. The world could use that again. (He says, sounding a lot like a shit Hallmark card.)