HBO’s Harry Potter series costs revealed as budget looks set to overtake the original films

A new filing has revealed how much was spent on HBO’s Harry Potter TV show just halfway through filming, with season 1 well on track to take over even the most expensive Harry Potter movie. 

The plan is for the HBO series to adapt one book per season, meaning seven seasons in total. The first chapter covers Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and is set to premiere on Christmas Day this year. 

Given how popular the original movies are, the TV show has some big boots to fill. And apparently some deep pockets too. 

As outlined by The Times, publicly available financial filings show that spending on the reboot hit £147.4 million (around $196.5m) by the end of last year, despite only being halfway through filming. 

As well as the second half of filming, this figure is before factoring in any additional marketing costs and post-production, including typically expensive visual effects. This means when all is said and done, season 1 could beat the most expensive film’s budget: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which cost a reported $250 million. 

If you’re wondering how we know this exact figure, it’s all to do with location. While most streaming services keep their spending top secret, Harry Potter was filmed in the UK. 

This means HBO can claim back around a quarter of its UK production costs through a government-backed scheme, provided at least 10 per cent of the show’s core spending takes place in the country. 

But in order to do so, it must set up a separate company and file annual accounts to reveal the costs to the government, which are publicly available. The Times discovered that the Harry Potter series is being made under the HBO-owned company Plum Jam Productions.

Even though the Harry Potter movies were shot mostly in the UK too, their productions took place before the incentive. As such, their budgets are estimations rather than official figures. But if you want to compare still, here are the Harry Potter films’ estimated budgets, from smallest to largest: 

• Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets – $100 Million
• Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone – $125 Million
• Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 – $125 Million
• Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – $125 Million
• Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban – $130 Million
• Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire – $150 Million
• Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix – $150 Million
• Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince – $250 Million

Collectively, that’s $1.155 billion, but they went on to make a whopping $7.7 billion worldwide at the box office.

And that’s just the films. With HBO planning seven seasons of the reboot, the final bill could be huge. Clearly, HBO has faith in the adaptation.

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Featured image credit: HBO