One Harry Potter star parlayed barely half an hour on screen into the most lucrative payout per minute of the entire saga. Who turned fleeting scenes into a small fortune, and why did the math favor him over the main trio?
Run the numbers and a surprise pops up: across all eight films, Tom Felton’s Draco Malfoy clocks just 31 minutes yet reportedly banked about 17 million dollars, north of 500,000 per minute. That per-minute haul tops the franchise’s headliners Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, according to FilmStarts analysis. History has smiled on brief but potent turns before, from Judi Dench’s scene-stealing royalty to Anthony Hopkins’s chill-inducing Hannibal. And within Hogwarts, Alan Rickman’s Severus Snape shows how a relatively lean runtime can cast a long shadow as the money math tells its own story.
A brief appearance, a massive payday
31 minutes. That is the combined screen time Tom Felton, the sharp-tongued Draco Malfoy, logs across all eight Harry Potter films. Yet his haul reportedly reaches $17 million, which works out to over $500,000 for each minute on-screen. The gap stems from franchise-scale salaries, multi-film contracts, and back-end terms that reward key supporting players whose roles, though brief, are pivotal to the story and marketing.
Felton, Dench, and Hopkins: success measured in moments
Tom Felton’s financial feat has precedents. Judi Dench’s 8-minute turn in Shakespeare in Love earned her an Oscar. Anthony Hopkins’ unnerving presence in The Silence of the Lambs spans just 16 minutes and also won him an Academy Award. Felton did not claim such trophies, but he fits a pattern proving that limited time can still deliver outsized impact.
The numbers game: how do the stars stack up?
The math is striking. Felton’s per-minute figure eclipses those of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, whose larger roles dilute their per-minute pay despite huge overall earnings. Radcliffe, for instance, amassed more than $100 million as the titular wizard, but his extended screen presence lowers that per-minute average compared to Felton’s concentrated appearances.
Daniel Radcliffe: Lead with vast screen time, translating to a lower pay per minute.
Rupert Grint and Emma Watson: Central to the trio, significant overall earnings with less per-minute leverage.
Tom Felton: Supporting role that converts brief moments into surprising financial dominance per minute.
Alan Rickman: another master of impactful moments
Alan Rickman, indelible as Severus Snape, accumulated less screen time than the central trio yet delivered layered, scene-stealing work that anchored the saga’s moral core. Precise salary details are not public, but the conversation about his compensation endures, underscoring how measured contributions in ensemble franchises can carry outsized value.
Magic beyond the screen
Regardless of who earned what, the Harry Potter films continue to enchant new viewers and longtime fans. Now streaming on Max, the series showcases how every character, even in brief appearances, helps the world feel alive. Sometimes, less truly is more.