The Harry Potter movies are some of the most popular films ever released, with The Deathly Hallows Part 2 and The Philosopher’s Stone the 16th and 50th highest grossing films of all time.
The eight blockbuster films, which first opened between 2001 and 2011, made over $7.8 billion at the worldwide box office, and spawned wildly successful spin-off books, films, and plays.
Yet for some fans, it was still not the easiest process to watch the films on demand: you either had to buy them, rent them, or have a Sky/NOW subscription.
But that was until last week, when all eight films were added to UKNetflix, meaning that the millions of UK Netflix subscribes (in January The Guardian projected the figure to be around 13.7 million) can now watch the Harry Potter franchise on demand. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the films have been dominating the streamer ever since.
In Netflix UK’s rankings for last week, the first six films in the franchise were in the streamer’s top 10 films, with Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, coming in at number 10. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (given the US title, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) sat in the top spot.
Earlier in the week, all eight of the Harry Potter films were in the top 10. It looks like Netflix subscribers have been watching the films in order of their release, too, as the films in the top ten list follow the same order as the film order.
Harry Potter fans shared their excitement online: “Knowing Harry Potter will be on Netflix is making me so happy rn,” tweeted one fan. “I feel like the whole UK is collectively bingeing Harry Potter on Netflix today xxxx me included xxxx” said another. A third agreed, tweeting: “This is not a drill, the entire Harry Potter series is on Netflix.”
“Really like how Netflix’s UK Top 10 are the Harry Potter films in successive order which means we’re all doing a national movie marathon together lol,” said another.
It shows that over two decades after the films’ release, enthusiasm for the Harry Potter franchise is still going strong, despite fervent push back against the book series’ author J. K. Rowling, for her controversial views on transgender rights.
Read More
At the beginning of 2022, a reunion special, titled Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, was released on HBO Max. It saw a number of principal cast members, such as Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Tom Felton and Ralph Fiennes reassemble to discuss the films – to the great delight of Harry Potter fans. Rowling was not included in the special.