Advertisement

NBCU’s Peacock Will Stream All Eight ‘Harry Potter’ Movies for Free Starting Later in 2020

NBCUniversal’s Peacock announced that all eight Harry Potter films will be available to stream in windows starting later this year and rolling into 2021 — including on Peacock’s free, ad-supported tier.

The octet of movies based on J.K. Rowling’s famed fantasy book series is set to roll off HBO Max as of Aug. 25, after WarnerMedia had carved out a three-month window for the popular franchise following its launch.

More from Variety

In 2016, NBCU inked a deal with Warner Bros. locking up TV and digital rights to the Potter movies (including “Fantastic Beasts”) from 2018-2025 that also incorporated content for Universal theme parks.

“The Harry Potter franchise is beloved by people of all ages and represents the caliber of quality entertainment customers can expect to find on Peacock,” said Frances Manfredi, Peacock’s president of content acquisition and strategy, in a statement. “We’ve built a world-class collection of iconic movies and shows, and we will continue to expand the film library with treasured titles from NBCUniversal and beyond that will surprise and delight Peacock customers time and time again.”

Starting in October, Peacock customers will be able to stream “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001), “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (2002), “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004), “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2005), “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (2007), “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (2009) and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” parts 1 (2010) and 2 (2011).

The eight films, released between 2001 and 2011, rank as the third highest-grossing movie franchises in history with a worldwide haul of $7.7 billion (behind Disney’s Marvel and Star Wars).

Peacock launched nationwide in the U.S. on July 15 — but a number of the big movies on the streaming service rolled off the service in a matter of days or weeks. Those titles, which seemingly aimed at attracting users to the fledgling streamer, included the original 2009 “Fast & Furious” and comedy “Evan Almighty,” “Shrek”; the trio of Universal’s “Jurassic Park” movies and all three of Warner Bros.’s “Matrix” movies.

As part of Comcast’s second-quarter 2020 earnings announcement last week, the company touted that Peacock landed 10 million signups since it debuted in April for Comcast Xfinity and Flex customers and on July 15 nationally. But NBCU CEO Jeff Shell didn’t break down what that means in terms of paid subscribers vs. free viewers or how many actively monthly viewers Peacock has, saying it was too early to determine.

Comcast has forecast investing $2 billion into Peacock over 2020 and 2021, with the service expected to break even in 2024. For now, Peacock (like HBO Max) is unavailable on Roku or Amazon’s Fire TV platforms as the companies remain at an impasse over distribution terms.

Best of Variety

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.