Pursuits
Barnes & Noble Aims to Recapture Magic With Harry Potter Release
- Stores partnering with local fan clubs for midnight parties
- Latest installment of saga set to be chain’s top book of 2016
This article is for subscribers only.
On Saturday night, Jon Rosenthal will do something he hasn’t done in nearly a decade: He’ll dress up like a wizard.
The 36-year-old assistant restaurant manager plans to join a mob of fellow Harry Potter fans at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood to celebrate the midnight release of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” The chain says the first new installment of J.K. Rowling’s saga in nine years will be its biggest seller of the year. To capitalize on the occasion, it’s throwing parties and keeping all 640 of its stores open past midnight.