Warner Bros. Pictures’ Innovative Harry Potter Website Attracts Over 25 Million Visitors

(November 13, 2001 – Burbank, CA) – www.HarryPotter.com, Warner Bros. Pictures’ official Harry Potter Website, has become an unprecedented success, attracting over 25 million visitors since its launch in February. Current traffic at the site averages 2 million unique visitors per week, with some days attracting up to half a million “uniques,” and the site continues to grow as the November 16th opening of the feature film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”* rapidly approaches. “www.HarryPotter.com has been an extraordinary collaboration,” said Jim Noonan, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Warner Bros. Online. “Our live Webcast of the ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’* world premiere in London was viewed by fans in 40 countries. We have 1 million subscribers to the newsletter; 700,000 people have used the Magical Creature Maker; 80,000 people have established Harry Potter fan sites; and 1.5 million Harry Potter E-cards have been sent. This is a web site that is working.” Since its inception, the innovative www.HarryPotter.com has been consistently ranked among the top movie information websites and it has been named the number one movie site for the last six months. Fans around the globe and across the Web have registered tens of millions of viewings of the three movie trailers currently accessible on the site. In addition to the Magical Creature Maker and Harry Potter E-cards, the content-rich www.HarryPotter.com features interactive experiences at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, including the School’s infamous Sorting Hat and four Quidditch Practice Games; Howlers (audio greetings); downloadable coloring pages and bookmarks; screensavers; buddy icons; message boards; wand shopping; the Daily Prophet Newsletter detailing upcoming events; and complete sites rendered in nine languages. “www.HarryPotter.com has been the center of an integrated presence across the Internet for the last year,” said Don Buckley, Senior Vice President, Theatrical Marketing and New Media, Warner Bros. Pictures. “The mission was to reach great numbers of people, but the guiding principle has been the story. We had such an abundant set of story elements that the content kept growing and growing to the point that we partnered with AOL to create a Harry Potter channel, where even more of the magical content of www.HarryPotter.com could be accessed and enjoyed. What really made the difference was the special handling by WBOL in covering all of the bases. Harry Potter is a beloved story and they took it out there with the right technology, design, community, E-mail, and sensitivity to the story.” In the U.K., www.HarryPotter.com can be accessed via www.harrypotter.co.uk. AOL Keyword: Harry Potter “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”* will be released by Warner Bros. Pictures, an AOL Time Warner Company, in North America and the U.K. on November 16. Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Heyday Films/1492 Pictures/Duncan Henderson Production of a Chris Columbus film, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, John Cleese, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Richard Griffiths, Richard Harris, Ian Hart, John Hurt, Alan Rickman, Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith and Julie Walters. Directed by Chris Columbus from a screenplay by Steve Kloves, based on the acclaimed novel “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling, the film is produced by David Heyman. Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe, Michael Barnathan and Duncan Henderson are the executive producers. John Seale is the director of photography; Stuart Craig is the production designer; Richard Francis-Bruce is the editor; and John Williams is the composer. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”* has been rated “PG” by the Motion Picture Association of America for “some scary moments and mild language.” *The film is titled “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” in Canada and the U.K. # # #