According to Deadline, a UK Companies House filing shows HBO's Harry Potter is on track to be one of the most expensive series the network has ever made, with the first season averaging roughly $25 million an episode.
The number isn't news, the number is the press release. "Among the most expensive series HBO has ever made" isn't a cost, it's a flex, the way a yacht isn't a boat. Nobody is apologizing for the money. They're filing it with Companies House and letting the tabloids do the math, because "£25 million an episode" is a headline you can't un-read.
The money is hiding in a shell company called Plum Jam Productions, which used to be called Roundabout and made The Nevers. A billion-dollar magic school runs out of a name that sounds like a toddler's snack menu. That's the whole industry in one filing: the most lavish sets ever built for television are booked through a company whose name reads like a juice bar at a primary school.
And the defense is already written: the costs are "front-loaded" so the sets will serve all seven seasons. Which is a nice way of saying they spent £200 million building a school that's supposed to never close, and future seasons will be cheaper because they're paying for the past now. It's a mortgage with a wand.
YOUR TURN: Is $25 million an episode a budget or a flex? And did you just care about the price of magic?
PAPER TRAIL
- The budget report: Deadline
- The accounts themselves: FandomPulse
- Rival coverage: Yahoo Entertainment
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