JK Rowling earned £8.25million last year from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child alone, figures show
JK Rowling earned more than £8 million from the show Harry Potter and the Cursed Child last year, new figures reveal.
The play, written by Jack Thorne from a story devised by the author, has been a spellbinding success since its premiere at the Palace Theater in London’s West End in 2016, and has since been performed around the world.
Reports published by HPTP Holdings Ltd, a company set up by the author and her literary agent Neil Blair to manage her theater production company, show that Rowling continues to enjoy success thanks to the young wizard’s money spinner.
The accounts, published on Companies House, show she received a dividend of £8.25 million for the year to March 2023, after the company reported a net profit of £5 million, up from £1 .3 million for the year to March 2022.
Statements accompanying the financials attribute the success to a post-Covid boom, with viewing figures returning to pre-lockdown levels.
JK Rowling received an £8.25 million dividend from the company that ran her global empire of theatrical productions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
The show has been performed at London’s Palace Theater since 2016 and is now performed around the world
The show is also performed at New York’s Lyric Theater on Broadway (pictured above)
Last year a run at Melbourne’s Princess Theater came to an end, as did a year-long run in Toronto, Canada
In the year 2022-2023, The Cursed Child – set 19 years after the end of the last Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows – opened in Tokyo, and a run in San Francisco also came to an end.
Elsewhere, the play continues to be performed in Hamburg and on Broadway in New York. The Melbourne and Toronto productions closed in July 2023, with the Canadian series ending after just over a year.
About £5.2 million of the company’s £14 million revenue came from shows in Europe, while £4.6 million and £4.1 million came from the US and the rest of the world respectively. It paid around £949,900 in corporation tax to HMRC.
However, the statements also reveal plans to expand The Cursed Child to the US and UK with a school edition license, while a North American tour is also planned for late 2024.
Ms Rowling is listed as a ‘person with significant control’ over the company’s documentation, while Mr Blair is the sole director of HPTP Holdings. He also holds positions at Wizarding World Digital, formerly Pottermore, and is chairman of Ms Rowling’s children’s charity, Lumos.
“All theater shows and licenses are expected to continue to perform strongly and remain profitable,” read a statement accompanying the financial results.
‘The director (Mr Blair) remains focused on planning future launches and exploring opportunities for future licensed areas.’
Figures released by other companies linked to the holding company show that almost half a million tickets were sold for the show’s London run in the 2022-2023 period – 496,214 in total, compared to 195,683 the year before.
The Cursed Child follows Harry’s son Albus as he begins his own journey to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, all while struggling with his father’s fame.
It has won a number of awards, including Oliviers and Tonys, and has been well received by critics.
Less well received, however, have been Rowling’s attempts to prune her giant leylandii hedge outside her Edinburgh home.
The attempt to prune the giant hedge has angered parents on school runs, who wondered why the roadworks, temporary traffic lights and long queues past her home in Scotland could not have waited for an interim break.
A spokesperson for the author told MailOnline this week: ‘The intention is always to carry out the work with the least disruption and the timing requires coordination and agreement with Edinburgh City Council.
‘The work would ideally take place in July, during the summer holidays, but due to other maintenance work in the area it was agreed that it would take place this week.’
Rowling’s Harry Potter series has sold more than 500 million books worldwide, making her one of the few billionaire authors.
She has faced backlash from transgender activists in recent years over what she says are concerns about single-sex spaces; some stars of the Harry Potter films and their sequels subsequently distanced themselves from her comments.