‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ Passes $1 Billion at Box Office After China Debut Amid Pandemic
A China re-release of the first Harry Potter film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” amid the COVID-19 pandemic has helped push the 2001 movie above the $1 billion mark at the global box office.
As part of China’s reopening of its movie theaters following the pandemic, the original Harry Potter film hit number one at the box office and made an estimated $13.6m on 16,000 screens, including $2.1 million from 594 IMAX screens.
That was just enough to help boost it over the $1 billion mark, when it had previously earned $997.8 million worldwide. It made $974 million of that sum upon its original release and was re-released in several territories including domestically in 2018, among other smaller re-releases.
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The film was restored in 4K 3-D for its new re-issue in China and currently sits at an estimated $1,001,260,000 worldwide to date. It is now the second film in the series to reach the billion-dollar milestone, following “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2” from 2011 and has grossed $1.34 billion globally. The Warner Bros. franchise in full has now earned $7.74 billion.
“We are thrilled to see ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ delight a new generation of audiences. The popularity of the film with moviegoers in China, who are discovering it for the first time, proves that the appeal of these stories is truly timeless and universal,” Andrew Cripps, president, International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures said in a statement.
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” was based on the first book in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and was the introduction to the characters portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. Chris Columbus directed the film from a screenplay by Steve Kloves.
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