The movie version of the first book has claimed national magazine covers and is backed by an initial marketing campaign pegged at more than $40 million. Internet buzz-meisters have made the film an odds-on favorite to break the three-day opening boxoffice record. [...] "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," the first of what Warner Bros. hopes will be a series of Harry Potter films to open each Christmas season, runs the risk of getting lost in its own consumer and media frenzy.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.