Spoiler alert - if you have not yet read the conclusion to the Harry Potter saga, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, you may want to skip this post, in which the ending is discussed.

For companies such as publisher Scholastic Corp. (NASDAQ:SCHL), the US publisher of the books, Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), whose Warner Brothers Studios produces the hugely profitable Harry Potter movies, and General Electric's (NYSE:GE) Universal Studios, which will open a Harry Potter theme park in 2009, the seventh and final Harry Potter book must have come as a great relief.

Despite rumors to the contrary, the title character did not die, and thereby cast a pall on the series and its offshoots. Rather, as I expected, Harry prevailed, and in general the core cast lived happily ever after. Even Snape, as I predicted, achieved redemption, but at a mortal cost.

In the coda to the novel, Harry Potter and his wife, the former Ginny Weasley, watch their children depart for Hogwarts. Also placing their children on the Hogworts train are Harry's best friends, the married couple Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger.

This final scene, nineteen years after the climax of the book, will no doubt inspire a great deal of conversation, as it keeps open a couple of possibilities for future novels in the Potter universe. Harry is still young enough to have more adventures, perhaps as he takes on the role of the era's greatest wizard, much as Albus Dumbledore was in Potter's youth. Rowling could also, should she decide to continue the series, reboot the series with the next generation of Hogwarts students.

I don't expect her to return to the Potter storyline for a long time, if ever, but the lure will always be there; a huge, thirsty audience ready to demonstrate their devotion with their pocketbooks.

Gallery: Everybody loves Harry Potter

Rowling safeguards Potter empire originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 23 Jul 2007 09:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Maybe at 39, I am too old and cynical to fall under the spell of Harry Potter. Maybe my nine-month-old son will one day become a fan of the teenage wizard. Until then, I shall avoid all Potter books and movies even though I am one of the few people on the planet to do so.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the latest chapter in the J.K. Rowling franchise, grossed $44.8 million yesterday, the biggest Wednesday ever, according to Reuters. That's good news, of course, for Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), the film's producer and distributor.

The movie even got a backhanded compliment from A.O. Scott of the New York Times who wrote; "Although Order of the Phoenix is not a great movie, it is a pretty good one, in part because it does not strain to overwhelm the audience with noise and sensation."

But investors shouldn't buy shares of the New York-based media company just because of one hit movie. Remember that blockbuster movies are extremely expensive to produce, though the power of Potter continues to amaze me.

Since 2001, the Potter saga movies have generated $3.5 billion in ticket sales. What they haven't done though, is reverse the decline in reading, the Times also notes.

There are some things beyond the powers of the greatest wizards.

Gallery: Everybody loves Harry Potter

Why I am not wasting a baby sitter on Harry Potter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.