Today HarperCollins acquired most of Newmarket Press‘ catalog and its name. New Market founder Esther Margolis will now serve as an executive editor at the publisher’s It Books imprint.

Margolis opened New Market in 1981, specializing in official tie-in books for films like as Milk, The Matrix, Gladiator,  Moulin Rouge and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The company has published more than 300 books in many different genres.

It Books publisher Cal Morgan explained the purchase, in the release:  “For years, Newmarket Press has been the industry’s leading publisher of film-related books. Its list of screenplays, making-of books, tie-ins, and other titles on cinema is second to none. Esther Margolis is a highly respected veteran of both the publishing and the film industries, with unparalleled relationships with countless studios and filmmakers. Her wealth of knowledge and experience in publishing to this audience will be an invaluable asset to the growing It Books list.”

The movies and the books may have concluded, but Harry Potter will live on inside a sprawling Warner Brothers studio in England.

The latest edition to the Potter franchise is the Harry Potter Studio Tour. Opening just outside of London next year, the studio tour will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the sets where the movies were filmed (pictured, via).

Time’s NewsFeed has more: “Highlights on a tour expected to take around three hours to complete will include Hogwarts’ Great Hall, Dumbledore’s office, the Gryffindor common room and Hagrid’s hut. You’ll also get to sneak a peek at the series’ animatronics (the likes of Buckbeak the Hippogriff, Aragog the giant spider, Fawkes the phoenix and the Basilisk head) in the Creature Effects workshop.”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow – Part 2 has crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office in worldwide ticket sales, the first movie in the franchise to reach this milestone.

The film exceeded expectations at the box office on its opening weekend in July with the best worldwide opening of all time, grossing $481.5 million.

The film also has an app called Harry Potter Film Wizardry that has done very well in iTunes, including holding to Top Grossing app spot. Mozilla Firefox is letting users decorate their browsers with themes from the film. (Via Publisher’s Weekly)

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 exceeded expectations at the box office this weekend. The film had the best worldwide opening of all time, grossing $481.5 million.

The Hollywood Reporter has more: “The movie grossed $312.3 million at the international box office, $5 million more than Sunday’s projections. In North America, Deathly Hallows Part 2’s actual gross came in at $169.2 million, compared to Sunday’s estimate of $168.6 million.”

The film has a new app in Apple’s App Store that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film. Not surprisingly, Harry Potter Film Wizardry is currently the top grossing app in the books category of iTunes.

To help promote the last Harry Potter film coming out next week, Warner Brothers has created a Parseltongue translator.

As the site explains, “Parseltongue, the language of snakes, is rarely spoken and even more rarely heard. It is a very uncommon skill, with Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort being the most well-known Parselmouths in the wizarding world.”

Click this link to hear how to say, “I can’t wait until Pottermore sells Harry Potter eBooks!” Pottermore, which launches this October, will be the online destination for all things Harry Potter, including eBooks.