By Carol Memmott, USA TODAY
Hello, Harry Potter – but move over to make way for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
The movie version of C.S. Lewis’ beloved children’s story, part of The Chronicles of Narnia series, won’t be in theaters until Dec. 9. But some booksellers are getting ready to pull out artificial fir trees, fake snow and Narnia-inspired stuffed animals.
So much for waiting until, say, Halloween to start hawking the Christmas merchandise.
And in the world of Narnia, there’s plenty to hawk.
HarperCollins, which owns the rights, has 145 Narnia-related books to choose from. Some have been available for years, but with Hollywood coming into play, an additional 24 movie tie-ins have been added to the lineup.
At Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Ill., the front window is all about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (due July 16), but a life-size blowup of Narnia’s lion king, Aslan, has already taken pride of place in the store near a table filled with Narnia books. Every person who buys Harry Potter will receive a Narnia bookmark.
Owner Becky Anderson says that soon after the Potter book goes on sale, she’ll waste no time transforming store windows into a winter-like “Narnia world.”
Discount chains also are getting into the act. Most Target stores began stocking shelves in their book department with Lewis titles in late May, says spokeswoman Lena Michaud. The book covers promote Lewis as “Author of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A Major Motion Picture. Holiday 2005.”
Beginning Friday, Barnes & Noble stores will devote a table to copies of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It’s timed to the expected increase in consumer traffic once the Potter book goes on sale. Right after the Narnia movie trailer was released in tandem with the May release of Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, “sales (of Narnia) have been doubling almost every week,” says Joe Monti, a children’s book buyer with Barnes & Noble.
At Borders book stores, Narnia titles can be found in the front of the store, on summer reading displays and featured prominently with other popular series such as Harry Potter. “With all of the media attention on the movie, it gave us the opportunity to take a stronger stand earlier than we normally would,” says Borders’ Beth Bingham.
HarperCollins has sold 15.5 million Narnia books since acquiring the rights in 1994, according to marketing director Mary McAveney. She wouldn’t be specific about how much of a sales boost a book gets when it’s turned into a movie, but Houghton Mifflin and Ballantine Books said they sold 27 million copies of J.R.R. Tolkien books as the result of his Lord of the Rings trilogy being made into films in recent years.