Harry Potter is one of the most successful and beloved franchises in cinema history. With its own world at Universal Studios, as well as flagship stores worldwide and restaurants in cities throughout the U.S., it’s clear that people can’t get enough of Harry Potter. The films are still finding new audiences with today's younger generation and following HBO Max's 20th-anniversary reunion special with the cast it is clear the hype for Harry Potter is strong despite the controversy surrounding franchise creator J.K. Rowling.
Updated March 19, 2023: This article has been updated to include the Fantastic Beasts films as well as additional information on all the Harry Potter films and the status of the franchise following the continued controversy around author J.K. Rowling.
The movies are an adaptation of the Harry Potter novels and both the books and movies follow Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) a young boy, whose parents died when he was a baby, who finds out he's a wizard. When Harry attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he uncovers the truth about his past as he and his friends go on adventures to ultimately defeat one of the most powerful dark wizards of all time, Lord Voldemort.
The film franchise has now grown with a prequel trilogy titled Fantastic Beasts to make up an entire Wizarding World film series to rival Star Wars, Middle Earth, and various superhero universes. Here is every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movie, ranked.
11 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Without a doubt, the weakest entry in the entire Wizarding World franchise is Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The second film in what was supposed to be a five-part story tried to double down on franchise nostalgia by bringing in a variety of characters from the Harry Potter franchise and putting Hogwarts front and center in the marketing.
The finished film however plays more like an ad for future films to come, with no real momentum being made on this film and sidestepping much of what made the first Fantastic Beasts unique. The film also raises some uncomfortable ethical questions about the wizarding world, where the villains want to stop World War 2, and therefore the heroes must stop him and make sure the horrors of that war come to pass.
10 Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is an improvement over Crimes of Grindelwald, but it was too little too late as the previous film damaged the brand so much that The Secrets of Dumbledore became the first bomb in the Wizarding World franchise.
The film does have some highlights, particularly an expanded role for Jude Law's Dumbledore, and Mads Mikkelsen makes a much better Grindelwald than Johnny Depp. Yet the film is caught in an awkward place of needing to be a prequel to the Harry Potter sequel while still being a sequel to Fantastic Beasts that never quite find a place for those characters. The film signaled an end to the Fantastic Beasts franchise and now there is no word on the future of the Harry Potter film series.
9 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released in 2002 and is the second installment in the franchise. When Harry and his two best friends Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts for their second year of learning wizardry messages written in blood on walls and strange things at Hogwarts interfere with their education.
While by no definition a bad film, and it captures the same comforting vibes of the first movie, Chamber of Secrets does feel in many ways more of the same and the most episodic in the main series. Chris Columbus helped guide the franchise, but it was clear that for the franchise to survive he would need to step aside and let other filmmakers shape the wizarding world.
8 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was the first entry in a new chapter for the Wizarding World, a prequel to the Harry Potter film series that was mainly a spin-off focused on Newt Scamander. The film does a great job introducing a new cast of characters that audiences could love, and the 1920s American setting is a great distinction that finally earned the Wizarding World series its first Academy Award win for Production Design.
Yet the biggest issue with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is when it tries to be a more traditional Harry Potter prequel, and the connections to the wider universe weigh down the fun stand-alone story the movie appears to be going for.
7 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
While there is so much to unpack in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the most memorable part about the film is Hogwarts' new addition, Dolores Umbridge. She may look sweet and comforting with her constant smile, always dressed in pink but inside she is awful to her core. Umbridge is one of the most hated characters in the franchise and because of how cruel her actions are even Stephen King has said that she is frightening.
Order of the Phoenix is caught in an interesting place, as it was the longest book in the series but is the shortest film meaning many subplots from the film are cut. This is David Yates's first dip into the Wizarding World, and it is clear he is still finding his footing and would make stronger entries in the series. It is hard to argue against the fact that the creation of Dumbledore's Army and the battle inside the Ministry of Magic are awe-inspiring moments that show Potter can compete with any action movie franchise.
6 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the first Harry Potter film ever. It introduces us to Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) as well as all the school and all of its professors who become parental figures to Harry. This movie was even nominated for three Oscars including Best Original Score, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design.
While this movie is great overall and kickstarted the franchise, the reason why it is ranked lower on the list is that the movie has to lay a lot of groundwork with so much ground to cover leaving some of the characters as broad archetypes. However, there is no denying that the movie did its job and got audiences hooked to follow these characters for years to come.
5 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. is the fourth film in the franchise and pivot for the series, as it brings Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) to the franchise as the series' primary villain. Harry and three other students compete in the Goblet of Fire tournament, an extremely rigorous obstacle that will determine who will win the Triwizard Cup which makes this the most action-centric entry in the entire franchise.
Goblet of Fire introduces many new characters to the franchise, with a special shoutout to Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson). By the end of the film, Voldemort has returned and killed Cedric Diggory marking the first major death of a hero character in the franchise. Goblet of Fire is the moment the series shifts from fun escapist children's movies to a darker more mature tale. The film is warm and inviting, but also where things get serious for the heroes.
4 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is ranked so high on the list because it was revolutionary for film in a lot of ways, the main one being that it was one of the first franchises to split a final film into two separate parts. With Part 1 of Deathly Hallows having a running time of nearly two and a half hours and Part 2 being two hours and ten minutes long, director David Yates was able to fit everything he wanted into the story by creating two films for the last book.
The first film features a major break from the franchise conventions, with the characters never stepping foot in Hogwarts which creates a sense of longing for the audience to return to that setting. The fugitive man on the run story is a change of pace and puts the characters in scenarios they've never been in. The story of the three brothers is a visual marvel of animation.
The best decision though was the final sacrifice of Dobby the House Elf. While the character dies in the books the movie uses his death as a major shift in the narrative, the moment where the characters are at their lowest in a manner similar to The Empire Strikes Back. Dobby's death is emotional, heartbreaking, and a real moment of maturity in the franchise one forgets it is a wizard boy holding a house elf and just sees a young man holding an old friend in his arms.
3 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
With some of the most action-packed and heartwarming moments in the entire franchise Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was a great conclusion to a decade-long franchise. The battle at Hogwarts is one of the most difficult fights Harry has found himself in, and it ends up causing the death of a lot of his friends, while the filmmakers also decided to focus on the destruction of Hogwarts as opposed to big action set pieces.
At the end of the movie, audiences see Harry, Ron, and Hemione all grown up, still great friends, and at peace with their lives after Hogwarts, which is all fans can really hope for. Had that been the end of the franchise, fans certainly would have been happy.
2 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
This movie changed Hogwarts forever and brought many characters to their breaking point. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) finds himself called upon by Voldemort's followers to kill Albus Dumbledore. In an attempt to spare Draco from committing the murder, Dumbledore asks Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) to kill him instead. The headmaster's death reveals secrets to Harry about his upbringing and early years at Hogwarts shocks him and changes his relationship with his professors forever.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is one of the most visually beautiful entries in the franchise and was even nominated for Best Cinematography at the Academy Awards. With the final two films being so focused on stopping the main villain the filmmakers make sure to treat the last film set during the Hogwarts school years with all the fun elements fans had come to love. This includes Quidditch, teenage romance, and even bringing back the conflict between Harry and Malfoy which had been mostly ignored in the previous three movies.
Yet the film also has some of the most heartbreaking moments, and the sequence of the staff and students of Hogwarts holding up their wands to lighten the sky and cast away the darkness is one of the best pieces of visual storytelling in the series.
1 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Coming in at number one on the list is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This film is nothing short of epic action scenes, one of the most interesting plots in the franchise, and bold new characters. The best part about this film is the introduction to new characters such as Professor Remus Lupin (David Thewlis) and Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) as well as the casting of a new Dumbledore with Michael Gambon filling in for the late Richard Harris.
The great Alfonso Cuaron steps into the director's chair and drastically reimagines the Harry Potter franchise, setting a new template for various filmmakers to come in and leave their mark on the series. Prisoner of Azkaban walks the fine line between the early Chris Columbus entries being fun and entertaining kids' films while dipping the franchise into some of the darker material the later films would introduce. While Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban might be the lowest-grossing film in the main Harry Potter series, there is no doubt it is the best of the franchise.