‘Cursed Child’ is high-dollar

NEW YORK — The Harry Potter economy is filled with jawdropping numbers, including 500 million books sold and $7.7 billion in worldwide film grosses.

Here’s another one: “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” a two-part drama now in previews and scheduled to open on Sunday, cost about $68.5 million to bring to Broadway.

That figure includes not only $35.5 million to capitalize the show — a record among nonmusical plays — but also $33 million to clear out and redo the theater.

“That’s a ton of money, no question about it, in terms of what things cost around here,” said Tom Viertel, executive director of the Commercial Theater Institute.

“But it’s (J.K. Rowling’s) Harry Potter, one of the most popular brands in the history of brands. It has a title the likes of which we would rarely, if ever, get to see on Broadway.”

Even in previews, Potter fans have been filling up the Lyric, one of Broadway’s largest theaters.

The $2.1 million that the play took in during the first week of April was more than any other play had previously grossed in a single week.

The record-setting $35.5 million capitalization — the amount raised from producers and investors to pay an unusually large cast and crew, rehearse an unusually long show and build an unusually elaborate production — was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

By comparison, most nonmusical plays on Broadway are between $3 million and $5 million, and even the splashiest musicals rarely top more than $25 million.

The Ambassador Theater Group, which view with other theaters to woo “Cursed Child,” overhauled the Lyric at the behest of the play’s producers, reconfiguring it to feel more like an old-fashioned opera house.