It’s been 14 years since Daniel Radcliffe played Harry Potter. Yet the actor, 35, is still cashing in from the role which made him a star, having reportedly amassed almost £100million from the business he uses to channel his on-screen earnings.
Investment-savvy Radcliffe is believed to have earned £75million by the time he finished the last of eight Harry Potter films in 2011 – but that has since increased by £20million-plus.
According to the latest accounts filed with Companies House, in the 12 months to March 2024 alone, he boosted his income by £6.6million.
Despite starring in a string of stage and screen roles – even winning a Tony Award for his role in Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along last year – nothing has come close to his best-known role as the boy wizard.
Yet in recent years, divisions between Radcliffe and the woman who gave him his big break, author JK Rowling, have played out very publicly.
While Rowling, 59, believes women’s rights are being eroded by transgender activists, many of the young actors who starred in the Harry Potter movies, including Radcliffe and Emma Watson, who played Hermione, have either criticised her comments or distanced themselves from them. Radcliffe admitted last year that he and Rowling haven’t spoken for four years.
Harry Potter stars Ron Weasley, played by Rupert Grint, Harry Potter, played by Daniel Radcliffe, and Hermione Granger, played by Emma Watson
Few doubt that these stars owe their careers to the feminist author. But just how much money have her creations made for them? Here’s a rundown of the many millions the cast have accrued since the first film was released in 2001…
1. Daniel Radcliffe – £96.3million
Radcliffe played the eponymous role of the boy wizard in all eight films, reportedly being paid £1million for the first – when he was just 12 years old – and a total of £37.5million for the final two. That’s before the royalties rolled in.
He has now accrued a fortune of more than £96million, securing himself 29th place on the Sunday Times 40 under 40 Rich List.
While he has admitted ‘nothing in my life’ is likely to have happened without Rowling, he also insists it doesn’t mean he has to compromise on the things he ‘truly believes’, stating: ‘Transgender women are women.’
While Radcliffe has gone on to secure other screen roles – including playing Arthur Kipps in the 2012 adaptation of The Woman In Black and alongside Ethan Hawke in the soon-to-be-released Batso, based on a true story about trailblazing mountain climbers – nothing he has done since finding fame as a young wizard has been quite so box office busting.
It’s been 14 years since Daniel Radcliffe played Harry Potter. Yet the actor, 35, is still cashing in from the role which made him a star
The actor, who grew up in Fulham, West London, the only child of Marcia Gresham, a South African-born casting agent, and Alan Radcliffe, a literary agent from Northern Ireland, holds a substantial chunk of his wealth in Gilmore Jacobs Limited, set up in 2000 by his parents to manage his finances, which invests in property and theatre companies.
Radcliffe, who has a one-year-old son with his long-term partner and fellow actor Erin Darke, has homes in both west London and New York’s fashionable West Village.
2. Emma Watson – £67million
Clocking in at number 39 on the Sunday Times 40 under 40 Rich List, Watson, 34, has accrued a fortune of around £67million since being cast in the role of swotty Hermione Granger.
Her total estimated earnings from playing Hermione, the closest person Harry ever had to a sister, amounted to £49million, £24million of which came from The Deathly Hallows, Parts 1 and 2.
Watson’s high profile also brought her to the attention of casting directors for 2017 blockbuster Beauty and the Beast – she earned £17million for her starring role as Belle. She then earned an estimated £3million for taking on the mantle of Meg March in the 2019 film adaptation of Little Women.
Clocking in at number 39 on the Sunday Times 40 under 40 Rich List, Watson, 34, has accrued a fortune of around £67million
Meanwhile, cosmetics and fashion brands queue up to hire the beauty, whose woke credentials are a big hit with younger generations – as well as criticising Rowling, Watson also expressed a preference to be referred to as ‘self-partnered’, rather than single, coining a new term.
She has been the face of Burberry, Lancome and Prada Beauty fragrance Paradoxe and was also appointed the youngest member of the board of directors of Kering, which owns fashion brands including Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent.
The daughter of lawyers, Watson went to £27,000-a-year Dragon School in Oxford. She has shown considerable business nous with her investment company, Hestia Hebe, notching up a wealth of £23.2million, and launched Renais, a gin distillery in Dorset.
3. Rupert Grint – £40million
Grint, 36, reportedly made £21million playing the role of Harry’s best friend Ron Weasley and has since doubled his fortune to £40million.
Referring to his income from playing Ron, Grint once said: ‘It was kind of ridiculous what we got.’
While he too has been critical of Rowling’s comments about women’s rights, he has also likened her to an auntie, saying: ‘I don’t necessarily agree with everything my auntie says, but she’s still my auntie.’
Grint, 36, reportedly made £21million playing the role of Harry’s best friend Ron Weasley and has since doubled his fortune to £40million
Since hanging up his wizard’s cloak, Grint has starred as Julian Pearce in Apple TV horror series Servant since 2019, and as Walter Gilman in 2022 Netflix anthology Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.
He has also worked some magic of his own on his property portfolio.
Dad to four-year-old daughter Wednesday with his partner of 13 years, fellow actor Georgia Groome, he co-owns Clay 10, which manages investments as well as TV and film income, and Eevil Plan Properties, which manages his £24million housing empire, with his father Nigel.
4. Tom Felton – £16million
Although only 12 when cast in the role of snobbish and power hungry bully Draco Malfoy, who antagonised Harry and his friends, Felton began his acting career aged six, and had already appeared as Peagreen Clock in the 1997 film The Borrowers.
He reportedly earned £14million for his time as Draco but confessed to wasting his fortune on frivolous purchases in the early days of his fame, including flash cars and lavish gifts for his family.
‘I had been working for eight years and all I had to show for it was this horrible debt. At one point we had the bailiff at the door,’ he said.
However, Tom has since had numerous film and TV roles to help rebuild his fortune – including in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and alongside Twilight’s Ashley Greene in 2023 film Some Other Woman.
Tom Felton reportedly earned £14million for his time as Draco but confessed to wasting his fortune on frivolous purchases in the early days of his fame
In May 2022, he made his West End debut in the play 2:22 A Ghost Story.
Later that year his book, Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard, in which he recounts the struggles with drugs and alcohol which led him to rehab, became a Number One New York Times best-seller.
Does his £16million fortune make it all worth it? Apparently not.
‘One thing that people keep on saying to me is that the wealth and the fame must have made up for missing out on my childhood,’ Felton said back in 2010. ‘But the idea of money — putting a price on your childhood — is ridiculous. You will never get those years back and you can’t put a price on them.’
5. Robert Pattinson – £80million
Hollywood heartthrob Pattinson, who, aged 17, got his big break playing Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, the fourth in the series, admitted to GQ magazine: ‘I spent a lot of time living off the Harry Potter money.’
Although his character, a prefect and captain of the Quidditch team, was killed off by Voldemort’s henchman Peter Pettigrew, meaning Pattinson couldn’t appear in future films, the estimated £2million pay packet supported his efforts to pursue a music career.
Hollywood heartthrob Pattinson, who, aged 17, got his big break playing Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
However, when the money ran out and he still hadn’t ‘made it’ Pattinson, now 38, returned to acting, appearing in two films, Little Ashes and How to Be, before achieving global fame in 2008 playing vampire Edward Cullen in Twilight, the big screen adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s fantasy novel of the same name.
Four sequels, based on Meyer’s other novels, followed, putting around £10million into Pattinson’s coffers.
After several years starring in independent, lower budget, films, Pattinson earned megastar status in 2022 playing Batman in the superhero smash hit, the sequel to which is due to be released in 2027.
Pattinson and his actress fiancé Suki Waterhouse, who have homes in west London and Los Angeles, had their first child in March last year.
Pattinson credited his role in the Potter movie for his glittering success, telling a podcast host: ‘I wouldn’t be acting if it wasn’t for that.’
6. Matthew Lewis – £8million
In his role as wizard Neville Longbottom, Lewis was said to be one of only two children with the power to defeat Lord Voldemort.
While he may not have been the one to put an end to the dark lord, Leeds-born Lewis, 35, has certainly made a success of slaying the film and TV industry since appearing in all eight Harry Potter movies.
He had a lead role alongside Emilia Clarke in the 2016 hit movie Me Before You, as well as The Rise alongside Timothy Spall. He has also appeared in numerous television series, including Happy Valley, All Creatures Great and Small, The Syndicate and Girlfriends.
Matthew Lewis played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films
Lewis also – albeit inadvertently – has Rowling’s genius to thank for meeting his wife Angela Jones, whom he married in 2018.
The couple met two years earlier while he was participating in the annual Celebration of Harry Potter event at Universal Studios in Orlando, where Angela was a VIP event manager.
7. Katie Leung – £4million
Leung, 37, had never acted before being cast as Cho Chang, one of Harry’s love interests, aged 16.
The Scottish-Chinese actress made her debut appearance in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth in the series, returning in two of the later films.
She was nominated in the MTV Movie Awards for ‘best kiss’, following her passionate clinch with Harry in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix.
Scottish-Chinese actress Katie Leung made her debut appearance in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth in the series, returning in two of the later films
In 2017, Katie went on to co-star alongside Jackie Chan – she played his daughter – and Pierce Brosnan in action thriller The Foreigner.
A year later she performed alongside John Simm and Dervla Kirwan in ITV drama Strangers and has had numerous other roles in theatre and TV, most recently in BBC1 thriller Nightsleeper.
Katie was pregnant while filming series two of Now TV’s Annika, in which she plays DC Blair Ferguson and gave birth to her son, Wolf in October 2022.
8. Evanna Lynch – £3million
Evanna Lynch, 33, made her first appearance as quirky witch Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth in the series, in 2007 at the age of 15
Lynch, 33, made her first appearance as quirky witch Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth in the series, in 2007 at the age of 15.
Having earned her keep, the Irish actress then had a prominent role in the final three films.
Indeed Evanna, who went on to have a career on both stage and screen – providing the voice of Gentry in The Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2020 and that of Betty in last year’s animation film My Freaky Family – credits the role of Luna for helping her overcome anorexia, for which she had been hospitalised several times from the age of 11.
During her illness she wrote to Rowling, stating that ‘her books and her kindness really made me want to live again’, and, she has said, was delighted when the author wrote back, sending ‘incredible, wise letters’.
However, back in 2020, Evanna weighed in with her co-stars, claiming it had been ‘irresponsible’ of Rowling to ‘discuss such a delicate topic’ as transgender rights on social media, adding: ‘That said, as a friend and admirer of Jo, I can’t forget what a generous and loving person she is.’
Then, in an interview in 2023, Evanna appeared to have had a change of heart.
‘I was very naïve when I was dragged into that conversation,’ she said. ‘I didn’t even know there were two sides. I had a view of, like, good and bad. I do have compassion for both sides of the argument.’
