When HBO Max launched back in May every jumped at the chance to get the brand new streaming service from HBO and Warner Brothers. One of the biggest draws to the service was the fact that you could watch all of the Harry Potter movies. However it appears that the movies won't be on the streaming service as of next month.
AltPress reports that as of August 25, 2020 the movies will be leaving HBO Max. The question is why?
Apparently years before an HBO and Warner Bros streaming service was even a thing Harry Potter's rights were sold to NBCUniversal. Hence the whole Harry Potter World at Universal Studios. They own the rights to the franchise until 2025, but before the launch of HBO Max the two studios worked out a deal to allow the movies to be part of the streaming service package.
So where will you be able to watch all eight of the Potter films? Short of buying them all (which if you're a big fan you probably already have them) they may land on NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service which just launched.
I personally feel this is slightly shady. If they knew that the movies weren't going to be on the service for more than three months they shouldn't have used it so heavily in marketing to get initial subscribers. But hey, that's business.