HBO's HARRY POTTER series had run up roughly £147.4 million (about $197 million) in production costs by the end of 2025, according to UK company accounts first reported by The Times. At that point, the Season 1 shoot was only about halfway done.
The money runs through Plum Jam Productions, the UK company set up to make the show, which filed its 2025 accounts with Companies House. HBO has not announced a budget for the series and declined to comment to Deadline.
Following the Galleons
By The Times' count, Plum Jam spent just over £18 million in 2024, while the show was in development, then nearly £129 million more in 2025. Principal photography began at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in July 2025 and ran into May 2026, so the filings capture only the first half of the shoot.
Deadline read the same accounts through a slightly different lens. Plum Jam reported £130.6 million in revenue for 2025 and £18.4 million for 2024, which Deadline says puts total spending at up to £150 million ($201 million).
Deadline added a caveat: the accounts don't break out how much of that went to Harry Potter specifically, since Plum Jam has housed other productions.
Using the revenue figure as a rough guide, Deadline estimates Season 1 at about £18.8 million ($25.2 million) per episode. That would put the show among HBO's most expensive productions, alongside The Last of Us and the final season of Game of Thrones, which was widely reported to cost $15 million an episode.
Measuring Up to the Movies
Of the eight films, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is most often cited as the priciest, with a reported production budget of around $250 million in 2009. The series had reached nearly 80 percent of that figure with half of its first season still to shoot.
The ledger isn't closed. Post-production and visual effects still have to be paid for, and UK production tax incentives can offset part of a show's qualifying spend, so the 2025 figure is not a final budget.
A source told Deadline the spending is front-loaded. The sets built at Leavesden are expected to serve all seven seasons, so later episodes should cost less to make.
Seven Books, Seven Seasons
HBO plans to adapt each of J.K. Rowling's seven novels as its own season. Season 1, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, runs eight episodes.
Dominic McLaughlin plays Harry, with Alastair Stout as Ron and Arabella Stanton as Hermione. John Lithgow inherits Dumbledore's beard, Nick Frost steps into Hagrid's coat, Janet McTeer plays McGonagall and Paapa Essiedu plays Snape.
Francesca Gardiner is the showrunner, Mark Mylod directs several episodes, and Rowling serves as an executive producer.
Why We Can See the Receipts
Studios rarely publish what a single streaming season costs, and publicity figures can fold different kinds of spending together. Big UK shoots often run through a dedicated company that must file annual accounts, which gives reporters a look at the spending before a premiere.
Under the UK's standard filing timeline, Plum Jam's next accounts, covering 2026 and the back half of the Season 1 shoot, would arrive in 2027. Until then, no final production budget has been announced.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone premieres December 25 on HBO and HBO Max.
Does a price tag closing in on $200 million at the halfway mark raise your expectations for the series, or your eyebrows? Let us know in the comments.