Media giant Time Warner has revealed that its tour behind the scenes of the Harry Potter movies in Britain has generated $435.7 million of revenue since its doors swung open in 2012.
The magic results are disclosed in recently-released financial statements for Leavesden Studios which is located 20 miles north-west of London. Leavesden was originally an aircraft factory, where planes were built during World War 2, and the first film to use it as a studio was the 1995 James Bond movie GoldenEye. It was followed by others including 2010 Oscar winner Inception and last month’s super hero team-up Justice League.
All eight of the Harry Potter movies were filmed there and in November 2010 the facility was taken over by Warner which distributed them. The studios are owned by its UK operating company Time Warner Entertainment which is itself a direct subsidiary of the NYSE-listed media giant.
In 2012 Warner opened the backstage tour which showcases costumes, props and sets from the movies about the boy wizard. They include a recreation of the Great Hall from the famed Hogwarts Castle as well as a full-size replica of the Hogwarts Express steam train which travels there. Last month the tour launched its winter season featuring fake snow on the sets and a lavish £240 ($323 at today’s rates) dinner in the Great Hall which is already sold-out.
The tour has enchanted visitors with up to 6,000 streaming through the turnstiles every day in peak season. The financial statements for the year-ending 31 December 2016 reveal that Leavesden's revenue rose 11% on the previous year “owing to an initial and ongoing programme of investment in the company’s facilities.”
Last year the tour generated 68% of its revenue with the remainder coming from the studio. As the table below shows, total revenue has nearly trebled since 2012 and hit a record $170.6 million (£126.6 million) last year. Net profit has surged seven-fold and rose 22% to $78.9 million (£58.6 million) last year alone bringing the combined bottom line to $243.6 million (£180.8 million) since 2012. Time Warner itself received the majority of this in 2015 when the studios paid out a $221 million (£164 million) dividend according to the financial statements.
Warner has spent more than $135 million (£100 million) on the site and last year made a $27.6 million (£20.5 million) investment in the land and buildings.
It originally built two sound-stages for the tour and refurbished eight of the others. Since then it has continued to expand and in 2014 opened three new sound-stages including 20,000 square feet of office space. The financial statements show that the studios are valued at $201.8 million (£149.7 million) with the equipment inside them worth another $46.9 million (£34.8 million).
The new sound-stages are home to the Fantastic Beasts Harry Potter spin-off trilogy which premièred in 2016 whilst filming of the sequel got underway in July.
The upgrade was well timed as the UK is becoming an increasingly popular location for filming by Hollywood studios. They are attracted by a tax break which allows movies to claim back up to 25% of their UK production costs. To service the demand Leavesden took on 44 additional staff last year giving it a total of 413.
It isn’t the only studio which has got a boost from the boom in film making in Britain. Pinewood Studios, which is home to the Star Wars series, recently reported that revenue in the year to 31 March 2017 rose 18.2% to $132.5 million (£98.3 million) with after-tax profits doubling to $20.1 million (£14.9 million). Expansion is also planned at the historic Elstree studios where Alfred Hitchcock directed the UK’s first ‘talkie’ and Gregory Peck made classics like Moby Dick.
