‘Harry Potter’ Series Breaks HBO History, Becomes Most-Watched Trailer Ever

The first trailer for HBO’s ‘HARRY POTTER’ reboot series amassed 277 million views in its first 48 hours. It is now the most-watched trailer in HBO and HBO Max history, surpassing the previous record by more than double. The first season of the multiseason series is set to follow Rowling’s first novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and each season will presumably focus on another book. Warner Bros. spent $1.2 billion to make all eight Harry Potter films. The new TV series reportedly costs $100 million per episode, which would make it the most expensive TV show ever produced. Amazon’s Rings of Power cost $58 million per episode. House of the Dragon, $20 million. Game of Thrones started at $6 million. HBO has planned seven seasons, one for each book, eight episodes per season. That’s 56 episodes. If the per-episode budget holds, the total production cost lands around $5.6 billion. Nearly 5x what all eight original films cost to make, and roughly three-quarters of what the entire franchise has earned at the box office ($7.7 billion) across 25 years.