Every ‘Harry Potter’ Movie Ranked By Worldwide Box Office

With Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone set to (re)launch in China today, there’s a pretty decent chance that the first chapter in Warner Bros.’ generational mega-hit franchise will earn just enough to push it past the $1 billion mark in unadjusted global earnings. So, to mark the occasion, I ranked the eight Daniel Radcliffe/Emma Watson/Rupert Grint-starring Harry Potter films in ascending order of global grosses, from the lowest to the highest, with a dash of relevant box office trivia. Also, just for fun, I listed each film’s respective yearly ranking as well as where it stood in the all-time global grossers list at the time of its release. And yes, I did note inflation-adjusted domestic earnings right at the end. So, without further ado…

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Budget:                               $130 million

Opening weekend:         $93.69 million

Domestic box office:      $249.76 million

Worldwide box office:   $795.63 million

#6 U.S., #1 overseas, #2 global, #11 all-time

In a fate shared by the first Star Wars trilogy, the most critically-acclaimed installment is also the lowest-grossing of the bunch. Alfonso Cuarón took over for Chris Columbus and offered a visually inventive change-of-pace. This character-driven chapter (the calm before the storm) offered our young heroes acting more like “regular” kids and their grown-up teachers (including Michael Gambon replacing the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore) doing more than just acting as educators. You’ll notice by the respective rankings, sixth in North America but behind only Shrek 2 ($928 million) worldwide for the year, that Harry Potter didn’t lose a beat overseas. There was talk, due to domestic front-loading, that Warner Bros. wasn’t sure if the series would make it to all seven books, but the robust performance of The Goblet of Fire answered that question.   

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Budget:                               $100 million

Opening weekend:         $88.36 million

Domestic box office:      $262.23 million

Worldwide box office:   $878.75 million

#4 U.S., #1 overseas, #2 global, #7 all-time

While it placed behind The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ($936 million) globally and is usually considered one of the lesser installments (partially due to being perhaps the least essential chapter in terms of plot and longform narrative), this was a somewhat rare example of a big-budget sequel that actually cost less than its big-budget predecessor. Thanks to a returning cast and crew (Columbus would direct for the second time) and plenty of re-used locations and sets, The Chamber of Secrets remains, save for the “two movies for one price” Deathly Hallows part 2, the most profitable installment in the entire J.K. Rowling catalogue.  It was the seventh-biggest global grosser ever at the time, behind only the first two Lord of the Rings movies, the previous Harry Potter film, Titanic, The Phantom Menace and Jurassic Park.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Budget:                               $150 million

Opening weekend:         $102.68 million

Domestic box office:      $290.20 million

Worldwide box office:   $896.68 million

#3 U.S., #1 overseas, #1 global, #7 all-time

Often considered (including by me) the best book in the series, Mike Newell helmed this pivotal chapter which saw Voldemort return from the dead and featured the first major present-tense casualty. The numbers speak for themselves, even if it earned slightly less domestically than The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe ($292 million). Fun fact: The doomed Cedric Diggory is played by Robert Pattinson, who of course would play Edward Cullen in the Twilight series. When he first showed up onscreen, maybe half of my packed IMAX opening night audience audibly swooned. Those thirsty teens (and young adults) were clearly ahead of the curve. The robust domestic bounce was all WB needed to commit to the entire seven-book series and pull Harry Potter out of the shadow of rival fantasy franchises.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Budget:                               $250. million

Opening weekend:         $77.84 million ($158 million Wed-Sun)

Domestic box office:      $302.09 million

Worldwide box office:   $934.76 million

#3 U.S., #3 overseas, #2 global, #8 all-time

The sixth Harry Potter film was delayed from November 2008 to July 2009, partially because Warner Bros. was already drowning in Dark Knight grosses. The date change shook up the year-end calendar, most notably in allowing Twilight to open not in December, but in the same pre-Thanksgiving spot where Harry Potter found massive success. Twilight opened with a stunning $69 million and the pre-Thanksgiving weekend unofficially became the home for big young adult fantasy franchises. Half-Blood Prince would place third domestic behind Avatar ($760 million) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($409 million) but would place third overseas behind Avatar ($2 billion) and, yes, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($690 million).

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

Budget:                               $150 million

Opening weekend:         $77.1 million ($139.72 million Wed-Sun)

Domestic box office:      $292.14 million

Worldwide box office:   $942.64 million

#5 U.S., #2 overseas, #2 global, #6 all-time

One of the best movies despite being based on the worst book, chapter five earned just $2 million less than Pirates of Caribbean ($651 million) overseas, while both trounced the overseas cumes of Spider-Man 3 ($558 million), Shrek the Third ($491 million), Ratatouille ($419 million) and Transformers ($390 million). Order of the Phoenix was the first to open during a Wed-Sun weekend and opened almost concurrently with the release of J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final Harry Potter book. The film’s action climax, a mass wizard battle between “Dumbledore’s Army” and “Voldemort's Death Eaters,” was presented in 3-D for IMAX auditoriums. David Yates made his franchise debut, and he would direct the last four Harry Potter films and (thus far) the first two Fantastic Beasts films. I hope Christopher McQuarrie is taking notes on how to end on a high note and not screw up the eventual prequel franchise.  

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I (2010)

Budget:                             $125 million

Opening weekend:         $125.02 million

Domestic box office:      $296.13 million

Worldwide box office:   $960.43 million

#5 U.S., #2 overseas, #3 global, #8 all-time

This would be the only year whereby a Twilight Saga film (Eclipse) would out-gross a competing Harry Potter flick, as the summer threequel was also the only Twilight movie to top $300 million domestic. It placed behind Toy Story 3 ($415 million), Alice in Wonderland ($336 million), Iron Man 2 ($312 million) and Eclipse domestically while Alice in Wonderland ($690 million) was tops overseas. Maybe if Warner Bros. hadn’t scrapped the 3-D conversion at the last minute, Harry Potter 7.1 might have triumphed over Alice and Toy Story 3, but kudos for doing what was right, instead of what was easy. I can personally attest that the best movie in the series (you heard me) looked and sounded spectacular in glorious IMAX 2-D.  

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

Budget:                               $125 million

Opening weekend:         $90.29 million

Domestic box office:      $317.87 million

Worldwide box office:   $974.71 million

#1 U.S., #1 overseas, #1 global, #2 all-time

Chris Columbus’s introductory installment, which at the very least deserved a special Oscar for casting, shattered the previous opening weekend record ($74 million for The Lost World in May of 1997), and became the second-biggest grossing movie of all time. While reviews were solid and the reception was positive (it earned a robust 3.5x weekend-to-final multiplier), it was slightly overshadowed by Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring which opened to raves and Oscar buzz a month later. Even with top-tier box office throughout, it arguably wasn’t until the fourth or fifth installment that the franchise was able to step out of the shadows of Lord of the Rings, the Star Wars prequels and the Matrix trilogy to take its place near the top of the pop culture mountain.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II (2011)

Budget:                               $125 million

Opening weekend:         $169.19 million

Domestic box office:      $381.19 million

Worldwide box office:   $1.342 billion

#1 U.S., #1 overseas, #1 global, #3 all-time

The eighth and final Harry Potter movie was, partially thanks to a (frankly awful) 3-D conversion and partially thanks to the whole “cinematic saga of a generation comes to an end” thing, the third-biggest movie of all time behind only Titanic ($1.8 billion in 1997/1998) and Avatar ($2.78 billion in 2009/2010). It shattered the opening weekend record, earning $169 million on the exact same Fri-Sun frame where Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight did likewise with $158 million in 2008. It remains Warner Bros.’ biggest unadjusted global grosser. Because WB shot Deathly Hallows 1 and 2 at the same time, both films were produced for a combined $250 million, making Harry Potter 7.2 the most “rate of return” profitable of the bunch with 10.73x its official $125 million budget.  

Epilogue:

Save for the unusually low-grossing installment (Prisoner of Azkaban) and the unusually high-grossing chapter (Deathly Hallows part 2), the Harry Potter series was remarkably consistent over its 9.5-year lifespan. Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 earned between $879 million and $961 million worldwide, a range of just 10%. They all earned a total of $7.73 billion global on a combined budget of $1.155 billion, giving them an average rate-of-return of 6.7x, which is still pretty damn high for a top-tier franchise blockbuster. Some of that is merely due to the franchise consistently earning over/under $900 million global back when $150 million was a huge budget for a big movie.

In terms of inflation-adjusted domestic grosses, they are ranked: Sorcerer’s Stone ($526 million), Deathly Hallows part II ($451 million), Goblet of Fire ($426 million), Chamber of Secrets ($423 million), Order of the Phoenix ($400 million), Half-Blood Prince ($381 million), Prisoner of Azkaban ($379 million) and Deathly Hallows part I ($349 million).

While we’ll see if Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone can earn the additional $25 million to push it over $1 billion worldwide, every single entry would be well over $1 billion if adjusted for inflation. Nine years after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 brought everything to a smashing climax, Harry Potter 7.2 is, shockingly enough, in 12th place, just the fourth-oldest movie in the top 25 behind Titanic (1997 at #3), Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003 at #24) and Avatar (2009 at #2).

In terms of how big Warner Bros.’ crown jewel franchise was by the end of its run, the eight Harry Potter movies made up 25% (eight) of the top 32-biggest grossing movies of all time right up to the blockbuster launch of The Avengers in May of 2012. Be it coincidence or fate, Marvel didn’t really zoom into hyperdrive until Harry Potter had ended its run. Even today, just nine (out of 23) Marvel movies make up the top 32 biggest global grossers, and one of them (Spider-Man: Far From Home) was a Sony flick.

Oh, and in case you’re curious, with the caveat that I at least “like” all eight of them, the quality ranking would be (in ascending order)... Chamber of Secrets (B-), Half-Blood Prince (B-), Sorcerer’s Stone (B), Prisoner of Azkaban (B+), Goblet of Fire (B+), Deathly Hallows part 2 (A-), Order of the Phoenix (A-) and Deathly Hallows part 1 (A). If you’re appalled at me listing 7.1 as number one, just know that A) both my wife and my mother agree with you and B) you’re all wrong.