It’s the magical wizarding world that’s captured the imaginations and hearts of children and adults alike, but how much has this global phenomenon made? From books to films and theme parks, we reveal who has earned the most from the Harry Potter series.

In 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was first published by Bloomsbury Publishing, with an initial run of just 500 copies. The publishers reportedly paid author JK Rowling a measly $1,282 (£1,000) advance. Fast forward nearly two decades and the publishing house has said that the success of the books has “transformed” the company.

Harry Potter is still the crown in Bloomsbury Publishing's portfolio. Sales were up 13% to $207 million (£161.5m) for the year to March 2018, following 2017's 20-year Potter anniversary, ensuring that the publisher's profits were at a 32-year high.

And the stores that sell the books have earned themselves a nice little profit too. After its translation into 80 different languages around the world, the Harry Potter series has gone on to sell over 450 million copies, with the revenue generated by the book sales soaring up to $7.7 billion (£6bn).

August 2016 saw the release of JK Rowling’s latest offering, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. And just like magic, the new story disappeared from shelves as quickly as they appeared. UK bookstore chain Waterstones reported pre-orders for the book surpassed the 100,000 mark, a rarity in the book world these days.

Unfortunately for Bloomsbury, although it owns the print publishing rights it didn’t think to secure digital rights when it first signed Rowling. As a result, the author still owns them, and sells Harry Potter e-books through her Pottermore website – on there, fans can interact with all things Potter and can purchase audio books.

For a long while, Rowling was thought to be the only author who solely owned all digital rights – and Pottermore the only outlet to purchase eBooks. However, in 2015 she allowed the bestselling series to be sold by major retailers like Apple and Google, and as a result eBooks and audio sales have surged. Sales rose by more than 100% in the final three months of 2015 compared with the previous quarter.

Back in 1999 JK Rowling sold the film rights for the first four books in the Harry Potter series to Warner Bros. for just $1.3 million (£1m). Although that might have sounded steep at the time, Warner more than made that back.

The franchise would go on to include eight films as the seventh book was too action-packed to be stuffed into a single movie. Collectively, the films raked in a whopping $7.2 billion (£5.6bn) worldwide with the last film bringing in over $169 million (£132m) in the US alone.

But Warner Bros’ isn’t just raking it in at the movie theater. DVDs, Blu-rays and rentals are said to make 70% as much as box office revenue. The first seven films have shifted nearly 80 million DVDs and Blu-rays in the US. When you add in video rentals, you get $1.7 billion (£1.3bn) in the US spent on bringing Potter home.

In late 2016, the spin-off, film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was released by Warner Bros. This Harry Potter prequel starring Eddie Redmayne was JK Rowling's screenwriting debut and took $812.5 million (£635m) at the box office. The second Fantastic Beasts film has just been released at cinemas and is likely to do just as well as the first.

The video gaming world has long been fascinated by the Harry Potter craze and games were a natural brand extension. Rowling signed over the rights to Sony who went on to sell more than 40 million units of the HP game. Reports suggest the games have raised around $716 million (£560m) since 2008.

Harry Potter toys and merchandise, like wands, hats and Quidditch equipment, have chalked up a magical $7.3 billion (£5.7bn) of sales as of 2016 and, as the excitement around the new Harry Potter play grows, those numbers are unlikely to slow for a long time.

The Harry Potter craze doesn’t stop with books, films and merchandise. It’s been brought to life with three separate amusement parks care of Universal Studios. They’re located in Florida and Hollywood in the US, and Japan.

A two-day pass to the Japan Harry Potter World will set you back $109.38 (£85) for an adult and $73.47 (£57.32) for children aged 11 and under. While the US-based attractions cost around $274.99 (£215) for a two-day pass for adults and $264.99 (£207) for kids.

Comcast Corp, the US company that owns Universal Studios, reported its theme park revenue for the first half of 2018 had jumped to $2.6 billion (£2bn), an 8.6 per cent jump compared to the same period in 2017.

Superfans of the series, or Potterheads as they call themselves, can make like they're on the Harry Potter movie set thanks to an interactive tour just outside London in the UK. The tour takes visitors around the various sets and studios where the majority of the eight movies were filmed.

Tickets for the tour cost adults $55 (£43) and kids $45 (£35), while the complete studio package which includes a ticket, a souvenir and digital guide costs around $13 (£10) more. However, if you want to invest in a slightly more extravagant souvenir of your choice, you can splash out on a Gryffindor robe for $95.91 (£74.95) or a Horcrux ring for $51 (£40).

Leavesden Studios, where the tour takes place, reported record revenue in 2016 when it reached $170.6 million (£133.3m). This brings total revenue since it opened in 2012 to $435.7 million (£340.5m). Another report suspects its total profit from the Potter tour to sit around the $215 million (£168m) mark.

Depicting the tales of Harry’s son, Albus, 19 years after the last book ends, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has been transformed into a stage play by Rowling, Jack Thorne (left) and John Tiffany (right). Opening in August 2016, fans scrambled to secure their spot months in advance, with tickets selling out in less than an hour and the sheer amount of traffic crashing the ticketing site. Prices went as high as $333 (£260) with third party sites re-selling them for $3,775 (£2,950).

The play, which is currently on at the Palace Theatre in London, has received rave reviews. The show has proved so popular and the tickets so hard to come by that the production has extended its run. In 2017, the play won nine Olivier awards, the most ever won by one play.

In the spring of 2018 the play transferred to Broadway, and within a week had broken records. Grossing $2,138,839 (£1.67m) in its first week, it has become the highest grossing Broadway play ever. It has since won six Tony awards. The production is set to continue the Potter pattern for world domination, with the next location for the play to open announced as Melbourne, Australia.

Despite having no formal experience Rupert Grint brought the bumbling Ron Weasley to life in all of the Harry Potter films. It is estimated that Grint made $36 million (£28m) for his part in the film series. He has continued to act, and will soon star opposite John Malkovich in the BBC's adaptation of Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders.

Emma Watson, who brought Hermione to life, is the actress who made the most coin from the Harry Potter series. According to reports the eight-film franchise earned Watson something in the region of $26 million (£20m). The films have given Watson the star power she needed to go on and score lucrative endorsement deals and other big feature film roles such as the 2017 remake of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. According to The Sunday Times 2018 rich list, she’s worth $64 million (£50m). 

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Starring as the boy wizard himself it’s not surprising that Daniel Radcliffe earned the most from the eight-film series. After HP, among going on to star in a string of Hollywood hits, Radcliffe's parents were smart enough to set up a company, Gilmore Jacobs, to manage his large Potter fortune where his assets were reported to have risen to $74 million (£59.7m) by the end of 2015. According to The Sunday Times 2018 rich list, he’s worth $111 million (£87m).

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As the woman who started it all, it’s only fitting that she takes the top spot. When JK Rowling sent her the original Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone manuscript to Bloomsbury she was a single mother, training to be a teacher whilst living on welfare. Fast forward two decades Rowling is now raking in the big bucks becoming the first author to earn $1 billion (£781m), although she’s given away hundreds of millions of it to charity. 

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In 2017, the makers of Pokémon Go announced that they were working on a Harry Potter augmented reality (AR) game. Set for release in 2019 it will bring the Wizarding World to life as users are enlisted to protect it, which players will do at harrypotterwizardsunite.com. With Potter mania showing no signs of abating, the gamers are likely to make a pretty penny from it...

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