Impressive number but with 7 books in the series that is roughly 57.5 million sets - 18% of the U.S. population or less than 1% of the global population. The best I could tell, there are 70+ Star Wars books with one claim of nearly 800 books.
WITH INFLATION, the Harry Potter series does not even crack the top 60 and is outdone by movies like Beverly Hills Cop, Blazing Saddles, Animal House, Independence Day, and Forrest Gump.
Pirates of the Caribbean also has an amusement park as well as some other very strange themes.
Although it's impact is significant enough to mention, I wouldn't blow it out of proportion. Wizard and Warrior stories(i.e. King Arthur and Camelot and such) have been around for centuries whereas Star Wars was an extremely new medium at the time, and The Matrix medium may have been completely new.
Harry Potter also takes place in a time that many would view as the present or even the past, thus keeping it from being 'the next Star Wars' which would most likely need to take place in what seems like the future.
The topic isn't what the "next" Star Wars is, it's "This Generation's Star Wars."
Of this past generation, Harry Potter is really the only thing that comes close, and even then, it's still not star wars. Mainly because Star Wars achieved two huge landmarks.
1.) It revolutionized the film industry.
2.) It was a pop-culture event. Hell, it was an explosion.
Harry Potter only achieved one of the two, being a pop-culture event. The movies, while solid, did not (and unless the 8th pulls something crazy) will not revolutionize the film industry.
And yes, with Inflation the Harry Potter movies would rank lower, but with inflation, Gone With the Wind is the number one movie of all time. What we also have to keep in mind with inflation is that the movie industry has changed. Films don't stay in the theatres as long for a variety of reasons. The internet, the fact that companies can make more money from DVD sales etc. etc. Regardless, the movies have been very successful, there is no doubting that, and a significant number of people watch them.
And you can break down the number of the percentage of the world that Harry Potter is influencing, but it's largely moot. When we discuss "pop culture" we're largely discussing a select few countries that have the means to indulge in pop culture, thus excluding a huge number of the world population. Not to mention the fact that your numbers aren't completley accurate, considering those books aren't being utilized by just one person. Families usually only buy one (maybe two) copies of the same book depending on size. So one book could easily represent two to three people.
Either way, the point I was making is that Harry Potter has reached a far greater number of people then WoW has.
And that's not a knock on WoW. I like the game, but the fact is that it's nowhere near most of these movies in terms of culture impact. It's a video-game, and a highly specialized video game that caters to a select group of people. Namely, males in the tween to late twenties/early thirties subgroup. So it's not going to have as far reaching of an impact simply because it doesn't appeal to as many people.
In terms of Matrix, I would say it get's points for, if not revolutionizing the film industry, having a very large impact in terms of style, at least in action. However, what hurt Matrix was not that it was ahead of it's time, but that the two sequels where just...not very good. Which was disappointing, because I loved the first.
Everyone's "Star Wars" will be different.
