There’s no denying that the Harry Potter saga was one of the most successful film franchises of all time. But the first three installments of the story about the young wizard portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe are gaining strong viewership numbers on Max. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban are being visited by audiences once again. The streaming platform owned by Warner Bros. Discovery continues to enjoy the success of the Wizarding World.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was the first installment of what would turn out to be a very profitable franchise for Warner Bros. The movie was directed by Chris Columbus, and it introduced Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively. By the time the movie earned almost $1 billion during its original theatrical run, the studio knew that they had to adapt the rest of the novels during the next decade or so.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets introduced yet another version of the saga’s main antagonist, Lord Voldemort. Christian Coulson was in charge of portraying a young iteration of the evil wizard, who managed to appear in front of Harry and Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright) because of a cursed diary. The sequel was also successful at the global box office, but in order to allow the characters to grow up alongside their audience, Warner Bros. knew they would need a different approach for the remaining sequels.

‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ Changes the Game

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was only released eighteen months after the previous installment. But the main actors looked much older by that point. In order to reflect the wizards’ transition into adolescence, director Alfonso Cuarón had the characters dress, talk and act differently than what had been seen before. The result was an engaging drama that set the stage for the war to come. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban also featured the introduction of Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, a character that would become even more relevant in subsequent installments.

The Harry Potter film franchise came to an end more than a decade ago, but Warner Bros. continues to find new ways to make it appealing to new audiences. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them attempted to launch a new franchise set in the Wizarding World. But what was originally conceived as five movies was cut down to three due to critical reception and disappointing box office results. The studio is currently developing a television series that will adapt the original Harry Potter books for Max.

The entire Harry Potter film series is now streaming on Max. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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