20th birthday
That’s how successful the Harry Potter films were
They became big stars through the Harry Potter films: Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint (from left to right)
© Terry O’Neill / DPA
The Harry Potter film franchise is celebrating its 20th birthday. What started with a movie has now grown into a billion dollar empire.
20 years ago, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” was the first part of the popular book series about the magician student of the same name in the cinemas. What nobody knew back then – the film would lay the foundation for a huge film franchise, delight millions of people worldwide and bring a total of over seven billion US dollars into the box office.
The first of the eight films in the original series is ultimately one of the most commercially successful. The first release brought about 974.8 million US dollars to the coffers worldwide. This grossing result was only topped by the finals of the Harry Potter series, such as the Statista graphic shows. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2” started in 2011 and overshadowed all previous parts with its box office success worldwide. According to Box Office Mojo, the flick grossed around $ 1.3 billion.
JK Rowling’s Wizarding World franchise also has some spin-offs such as “Fantastic Beasts”. The prequel series deals with the adventures of Newt Scamander – played by Eddie Redmayne – and goes into the third instance in 2022.