Potterheads, brace yourselves. "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" has been released.
The latest installment of the magical series hit the market Sunday -- the same day as J.K. Rowling's and Harry Potter's birthdays -- but the highly anticipated script release was breaking records even before it made it to stores.
"The Cursed Child" reportedly beat the presale record at Barnes & Noble set by "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in 2007. An executive at the bookseller expects the newly released script to be the company's "biggest selling book of the year."
And it looks like publishers need the boost. Since January 2015, the industry has seen a 6.7 percent decline in revenue and e-book sales have gone down 25 percent.
In February, Rowling clarified that that the new release would be a script of the London stage production, not a novel, not a prequel and not a sequel, but "The Cursed Child" can still be considered the eighth story.
Aside from "The Cursed Child," the series has inspired a spinoff movie, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," a theme park at Universal Studios and the interactive website, Pottermore.
And for those wondering why the boy-wizard series just won't die, author Rowling said a meeting with theater producers and script writers changed her mind.
"I did always say never say never. So I had an idea that maybe one day I would do something like this," Rowling said.
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