Lots of Copies Printed for Final Potter Book

Scholastic Corp announced yesterday that it would release a record-breaking 12 million copies for the first US printing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be released on July 21, 2007.

The release of the seventh and final book in the popular series by British author JK ROWLING will be backed by a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign and is expected to be one of the biggest publishing events in recent years.

Harry Potter books are available in 64 different languages and have sold 325 million copies. There are four feature films based on the series - and the fifth film, based on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, will be opening in theaters a week before the new book's arrival.

The first printing of Deathly Hallows breaks a record of 10.8 million copies of the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in 2005. That book sold 6.9 million in the first 24 hours.