In National Survey, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Voted Best of J.K. Rowling's Popular Book Series

SEATTLE, May 23, 2002 (ENTERTAINMENT WIRE) -- Amazon.com (www.amazon.com) (Nasdaq:AMZN) announced today that the company has already received more than 100,000 pre-orders for the DVD of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, making it the biggest DVD pre-order in Amazon.com's history.

With just five days left until the highly anticipated DVD and video releases of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on May 28, Muggles eager to add the magical tale to their home collections have propelled the movie to the No. 1 position on both Amazon.com's DVD and Video bestsellers lists.

Amazon.com also announced results of a national survey, which revealed the following:

-- Fans Favor Book 1: Of the four released Harry Potter titles, Muggles are the most spellbound with the original. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the landslide favorite in the series, capturing 58 percent of the vote. The sequels fared as follows: Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban placed second (18 percent); Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire finished third (15 percent); and Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets finished last (9 percent).

-- Yoda Trumps Harry: Though fans eager to own Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone have set the DVD pre-order record at Amazon.com, movie fans indicated that, if given the choice, they'd rather meet Shrek, Spider-Man or Yoda. The young wizard got just 10 percent of the votes, with the other three in tight contention with Yoda leading the pack.

-- Who Needs Fortune When You Have Family and Friends? The Mirror of Erised allows an onlooker to see his or her true heart's desire. When asked what they would most want to see in the Mirror, Muggles overwhelmingly chose family and friends (65 percent) over fame (3 percent) or wealth (13 percent).

-- Invisibility Is In: In a new age of wizardry, almost 46 percent of the Muggles surveyed covet an invisible cloak, followed by a magic wand (34 percent), a flying broomstick (13 percent) and an owl messenger (6 percent).

-- True Love for Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley? When asked about one of the main developing plot lines in the series, fans are split almost 50/50 as to whether love will blossom between these two popular characters. With Book 5 due next year, fans will just have to wait and see whether Ron and Hermione will live happily ever after.

NOTE: This survey was conducted by InsightExpress on behalf of Amazon.com. The survey was administered to 1,000 online survey respondents over age 13 from May 20 to 23.

 

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, Wash., opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Amazon.com and sellers list millions of unique new and used items in categories such as electronics, computers, kitchen products and housewares, books, music, DVDs, videos, camera and photo items, toys, baby and baby registry, software, computer and video games, cell phones and service, tools and hardware, travel services, magazine subscriptions and outdoor living items. Through Amazon Marketplace, zShops and Auctions, any business or individual can sell virtually anything to Amazon.com's millions of customers, and with Amazon.com Payments, sellers can accept credit card transactions, avoiding the hassles of offline payments.

Amazon.com operates four international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.fr and www.amazon.co.jp. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 300,000 movies and entertainment titles and 1 million cast and crew members dating from the birth of film.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to potential future losses, significant amount of indebtedness, competition, strategic alliances and business combinations, seasonality, potential fluctuations in operating results and rate of growth, foreign currency exchange rates, management of potential growth, system interruption, international expansion, consumer trends, fulfillment center optimization, inventory, limited operating history, government regulation and taxation, fraud and Amazon.com Payments, and new business areas. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001 and all subsequent filings.