Harry Potter DVD flies off the shelves

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth film in the popular children’s series, has rung up the franchise’s best first-day DVD sales – five million copies.

The figure includes North American sales of single-disc, two-disc special editions, four-disc gift packs and rental copies, a spokeswoman for distributor Warner Home Video said today.

The DVDs hit the US market on Tuesday.

While five million DVDs in one day is an eye-popping figure, it is not record-breaking.

Finding Nemo is the first-day DVD sales champ, with eight million copies sold on its release date in November, 2003.

The previous instalment of the Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, has sold 10.2 million discs to date, according to the trade publication Video Business.

Filming is under way on the fifth adaptation of JK Rowling’s best-selling Potter books.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be released in 2007.