Warner Bros CEO Opens Up About Harry Potter Franchise Future Post Fantastic Beasts Disappointment
After the failure of Fantastic Beasts, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zazlav is speaking out about the viability of the Harry Potter franchise. Over the course of eight movies, the Harry Potter franchise brought in $7.7 billion at the box office alone. Capitalizing on the popularity of J.K. Rowling’s books, these movies created a new generation of fans. The Fantastic Beasts franchise, meanwhile, proved to be relatively listless and brought in a comparatively low $1.865 billion across its three movies while garnering mostly mixed reviews. While speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference, Zazlav explained that ending the Harry Potter franchise was a misstep. The Wrap reports that Zazlav still values the IP and sees it as a useful tool for propelling Warner Bros. back to success, including seeing the upcoming HBO adaptation as an excellent strategy. Additionally, Warner Bros. Discovery hopes to create an in-depth plan for the DC Universe and to develop more Lord of the Rings movies without diluting the content. Check out Zaslav’s quote below:
Another one of Warner Bros.’s real strengths. is that we’re talking about the enormous intellectual property that Warner Bros. own. But for us, the challenge was that our content, our great intellectual property – “Harry Potter,” DC, “Lord of the Rings” – that content was not being used. correct level. We haven’t done anything with “Harry Potter” in over a decade. We haven’t done anything with Lord of the Rings yet. We think there’s a lot of shareholder value in engaging DC for 10 years – a plan that really revolves around DC, bringing “Harry Potter” back to HBO for 10 years straight, doing multiple “Lord of the rings” When you put these brands together, it’s the most successful studio in the world. We must deploy our best capital, and we must do it with the best creators in the world.
Did Fantastic Beasts Damage The Harry Potter Franchise?
Harry Potter’s future looks busy given the recent underperformance of the films in its universe. The first film project after Deathly Hallows was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which grossed more than $800 million on a budget of only $175 million and received generally positive reviews. This impressive result was hampered by the sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald, which grossed $648 million on a $200 million budget. The third and possibly final film, Dumbledore’s Secret, was released in 2022 and only grossed $400 million on the same budget, making it unlikely that a planned fourth Fantastic Beasts film will be made. presently.
Despite the sister series’ severe underperformance, Warner Bros. Discovery still has faith in the wizarding world. The next Harry Potter TV series is expected to be a decades-long project that could potentially revive the universe. The show is expected to premiere on Max and is not expected to have much relation to Newt Scamander’s franchise. Instead, it will tell the story of Harry’s life at Hogwarts once again, and will simply serve as a long-running adaptation.
HBO’s choice to return to Harry’s childhood could be a sign that while Fantastic Beasts hasn’t damaged the world, it has damaged WBD’s confidence in its spinoff projects. . If the series really does last 10 years, it could give audiences time to forget about the unfinished movie, instead, the focus could return to the parts of the universe that have already won hearts. of many generations of readers and viewers. Even after the recent poor box office performances, Warner Bros. Discovery still has faith in Harry Potter and franchises like it.