How Long Does it Take to Watch all Harry Potter Movies?

Since most people got stuck in quarantine over the last year a perfect opportunity has arisen for a good movie marathon. If you like Harry Potter you may have considered rewatching the series, but how long would it actually take to watch the entire Harry Potter series and could you do it in one day?

The entire franchise clocks in at 1,178 minutes of movie footage, give or take depending on which versions on the first and the second movie you choose. This totals at around 20 hours which means that if you really wanted to you could probably finish de series in a day.

This topic is extremely interesting when it comes to the Harry Potter franchise since the fans know there is a lot of additional footage that wasn’t released. If you want to learn more about the run time of one of the most popular movie franchises of this time keep reading.

How long does it take to watch all Harry Potter movies?

Harry Potter is one of those popular franchises that stick with the audience even after they grow up. This is in part due to the captivating plot and a universe that makes it easy to immerse yourself in the story.

This being said it is extremely easy to get wrapped up in the story and lose track of time while watching the Harry Potter movies. This is why like with many other similar franchises, Harry Potter is extremely bingeable. So how much time would it take to finish the entire franchise?

If you were to watch all of the movies back to back it would take 1,178 minutes. This amount of time comes to almost 20 hours, which means that you could watch the entire franchise in a day if you were truly committed.

This seems like such an interesting idea and a great activity for Potterheads or even just casual fans. As a matter of fact, the Prince Charles Cinema in London seems to have the same idea since it had this kind of marathon planned for May 30 2020 but had to cancel it due to recent epidemiological situations.

However, despite the extremely interesting plot, most people would probably start feeling a bit sleepy around the fifth or the sixth movie, it is only natural since our brains can’t focus for such a long amount of time. 

The first movie is 2 hours and 32 minutes long, with the second movie following close behind with 2 hours and 41 minutes. The third movie, Prisoner of Azkaban is 2 hours and 22 minutes long. 

Goblet of Fire is a bit longer clocking around 2 hours and 37 minutes. The fifth movie, Order of the Phoenix is a bit shorter totaling 2 hours and 19 minutes of footage.

The Half-Blood Prince is the last movie on the longer side in comparison with the rest of the series, lasting 2 hours and 33 minutes. The last two movies are on the shorter part, with the first part containing 2 hours and 26 minutes of content and the second movie which contains 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stones

 There is quite a small difference between the theatrical and the extended version of the first movie of the franchise. The theatrical version clocks in around 2 hours and 26 minutes while the extended version takes up around 2 hours and 33 minutes.

This provides us with almost 7 additional minutes of the movie series. The bonus scene would provide funny additions to the movie but are largely unimportant to the movie’s plot.

This time includes seven additional scenes. The first few come in the Dursley’s home where we get a look at Dudley’s school uniform and another scene which portrays aunt Petunia making breakfast before she finds Harry’s Hogwarts letter. The only remaining scene which doesn’t take place in Hogwarts is Harry and Hagrid riding the London subway.  

The remaining scenes include a prolonged version of the first Potions class when Snape confronts Harry, the trio talking about their encounter with a troll while returning to their dorm rooms, Harry and Ron talking about the mirror of Erised, and an in-detail investigation into Nicholas Flamell.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The second movie has a bit bigger difference between the theatrical and extended versions. The difference makes around 13 minutes of additional footage, however, this time there is more additional content.

The first addition extends the scene where Dobby first visits Harry’s home and causes trouble with Dursley’s guests. We can see Dobby for a longer amount of time and we can hear Petunia’s attempt at easing the tension.

The second scene takes place in a shop where Harry lands by accident where we can see Draco and his father in the extended version. The extended version also features a scene where Harry and Ron almost hit a building on their way to Hogwarts.

Other additional footage provides a brief scene with characters such as Mr. Filch, Professor Lockhart, and Justin Finch-Fletley. We also see a bit more of the trio’s search to uncover the secrets behind all the strange events taking place at Hogwarts during the year.

The scene with Mr. Filch touches upon his squib nature, a quite big part of his character in the book which movies left out and fans wanted to see more of.

One of the funniest scenes left out of the theatrical version is the students taking a quiz on Professor Lockhart’s personal life with Hermione being the only one who aced the quiz.

We also get some extra Quidditch scenes and Snape and Lockhart dueling in a longer version than it is in the theatrical version. 

The extended version also shows the viewers more of Harry’s doubts about his origin and connection with Salazar Slytherin as well as the addition of how the other students react once the word spreads out that Harry could be the reason for all of the mayhem happening that year.

The rest of the Harry Potter series

The remaining movies from the series actually don’t have extended versions, at least not officially. The extended versions of the first two movies were released with the Wizarding Collection, but there were no extended versions of the rest of the franchise.

However, there is a bunch of deleted scenes from the theatrical versions that were a topic of discussion among fans for many years. Most of these scenes according to fans would have made the movies much better, especially when it comes to the last movie.

There are many different scenes fans want to see released in the extended versions but there is a small number that gets mentioned any time the extended versions are mentioned.

The first one and perhaps the best-known one is Draco ultimately switching sides in the last move. Allegedly, the extended versions would feature Draco running across the Hogwarts yard once Harry reveals himself as alive and throws him his own wand. 

A lot of fans wanted to see this scene featured since it serves as a good closure to Draco’s are over the course of the series as well as make the epilogue of the story make more sense.

Another fan-favorite among the deleted scenes is the one from the last movie where Harry says goodbye to his cousin and his parents before they move away from their home.

It brings a lot of emotion to the characters we usually view as mean relatives who were taking care of Harry. In only a few seconds of content, we see Dudley expressing his compassion for Harry when he says he never thought Harry was a waste of space, and aunt Petunia shows as that she actually cares in a scene where she reminds Harry that she lost a sister the night he lost his mother.

It is quite unclear while all of these extended versions were never released since fans seem to universally agree that those few minutes of additional footage per movie that got leaked over the years would have made the movies even better than they already were.

Although it first seemed those versions could be released during celebrations of some important anniversary, we made it to 2021 when the only one remaining anniversary which could be a good fit, the 10th anniversary of the Deathly Hallows part two release. Seeing this much time has passed and we got no information regarding the extended versions it seems unlikely will ever get them.