How Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them inherits the $7.7 billion wizarding world

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be released in Chinese mainland starting on the 25th of this month.

□ Thematic Planning/Writing

Information Times reporter Ma Zewang

From the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 2001 to the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2011, Warner Bros. Pictures has grossed more than $7.7 billion worldwide for the Harry Potter bestseller series created by J.K. Rowling in 10 years and eight films.

To this day, this series is still the second highest-grossing film series in the world after the Marvel Super Heroes movie series (only the book numbers). According to the laws of Hollywood film business, this magic theme movie should not be extinct on the screen.

Rowling wanted to continue the Harry Potter miracle

After the novel's author Rowling emphasized that the Harry Potter story was over, Warner Bros. Pictures and Rowling finally thought of a way to make the wizarding world reappear on the screen.

The Harry Potter story ends, but the wizarding world in which Harry Potter lives still exists in the minds of hundreds of millions of moviegoers and book fans around the world. Rowling does not write novels about the wizarding world, but can write scripts for the wizarding world. Thus, the title "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" was born, which looked like an animal encyclopedia.

This movie, in fact, is not just a movie, because Warner Bros. Pictures and Rowling hope that this "magic movie" without Porter can successfully inherit the strength of the "Harry Potter" series of $7.7 billion and become a new generation of printing machines.

A film series of the Backwater War

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" was released in North America the day before, but a month ago, Warner Bros. Entertainment CEO Kevin Tsujihara announced with Rowling that they would make "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" into a 5-part series, a decision that was a bit unexpected, and everyone guessed that they would recreate the magical world movie and would definitely make a sequel. But the first movie has not yet been released, the filmmakers can't wait to announce that they want to make 5 movies, giving people the feeling that either they are too confident in the first movie, or they have the feeling of fighting a battle.

According to The Hollywood Reporter analysis, the $180 million film does feel like a backwater battle for Kevin Tsujihara. Because if the series succeeds, it will be Kevin Tsujihara's biggest victory since he became ceo of Warner Bros. Entertainment, and his biggest chance to prove his strength to his parent company, Time Warner. If it doesn't work out, the 5-part series will end badly, become an industry joke, and drag Kevin Tsujihara into the professional quagmire.

Warner Bros. Pictures wants to reinvigorate its prestige

Take a look at the cards that Warner Bros. Pictures currently has in hand. In terms of single films, this established company has more or less produced movies such as "American Sniper", "Inception" and "Gravity" in the United States in recent years.

But when it comes to the series of blockbusters that have grossed at the global box office, Warner Bros. Pictures' previous biggest ace Christopher Nolan's "Batman" trilogy ended in 2012, and the "Lord of the Rings" prequel trilogy "The Hobbit" trilogy was not particularly successful, but with the reputation of the previous game, it also made money in a mixed manner, and ended the year before. The American comedy of the "Hangover" trilogy in the United States is also a rhythm that is not as good as one, and it ended hastily in 2013.

Kevin Tsujihara's high hopes for the DC super hero movie series after taking office basically produced a "dumb" one, this year's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "X Task Force" box office reputation is seriously "double lost", and Kevin Tsujihara also publicly stated in March last year that "dc super hero movies are more sharp than Marvel", this year's two blockbusters that were pinned on high hopes did not show their edge, but people were more worried about Warner Bros. Pictures' next launch of "Wonder Woman", "Flash", "Aquaman", "Justice League" and other DC super hero movies.

Earlier, netizens who claimed to be former employees of Warner Bros. Pictures sent an open letter pointing out that Kevin Tsujihara's series of investment mistakes - "Single Parent Resort", "Jersey Boy", "Edge of Tomorrow", "Secret Agent", "The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies", and "Peter Pan: Dream Set Sail", and said that these failures and the shadow caused by the company's 10% layoffs in 2014 have gradually left the nest and capable employees to find another way. Earlier, Kevin Tsujihara announced that "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" would be made into a 5-part series, and there was a sense of hope to regain morale with this series.

The printing press that cannot be stopped

After its release in 2011, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 grossed $381 million in the United States, ending the series with a full bill and memories from Harry Potter fans.

However, warner Bros. Pictures definitely did not want this printing press to officially shut down, looking back at the Box Office of Warner Films in the United States, 8 Harry Potter films, and the third film with the lowest box office in the United States, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, all of which had nearly $250 million, and this is still a 2004 film.

Rowling said several times after ending the novel series that the story about Potter was over, but in 2013, she negotiated with Warner Bros. Pictures' CE0 Tsujihara Kevin about the Harry Potter novel "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", and the Japanese-American businessman personally took over the first major film project after joining Warner Bros. in March 2013.

This is Rowling's first film screenwriter, and the novelist directly wrote the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, without the original novel. She had previously published an encyclopedia of magical animals in the wizarding world, but it was only a brief introduction to the magical animals she had envisioned.

In her screenplay, she set Newt Scamander, a magical zoologist who appeared in the Form of a name from the Harry Potter series, as the protagonist of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, telling the magical story of his adventures in New York in the 1920s with a suitcase of magical beasts.

This setting predates the Harry Potter story by 70 years; the characters continue to be starred by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry students; the location is expanded from The United Kingdom in the Harry Potter story to the United States; in addition to magic and friendship stories, a variety of magical animals have been added in terms of entertainment elements. The setting that Warner and Rowling conceived can be seen that they want to firmly encircle the audience who grew up watching the story of "Harry Potter", but also the new audience who will be attracted by blockbusters and cute things.

The sense of presence that never disappeared

After harry potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ended in 2011, Warner and Rowling continued to make this magical story angry in various ways. On March 31, 2012, Warner Bros. London held a "Making Harry Potter Film Festival" for fans to watch.

Beginning on April 14, 2012, Rowling published short stories about characters from Harry Potter novels on her website from time to time. On November 13, 2012, Harry Potter's spin-off game Book of Spells was released on Playstation 3, which, while being criticized for its poor quality, became a buzzword, and a year later a new game, Book of Potions, was released.

On July 15, 2014, Harry Potter's Wizarding World theme park opened at Universal Studios Japan, the second Harry Potter theme park after Universal Orlando in 2010. On July 30 this year, the stage play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" about Harry Potter's child Albus and Malfoy's son Scorpy who fought with Voldemort's daughter 19 years after Harry Potter defeated Voldemort was staged in London, although many "Ha fans" said that Rowling had a taste of money in doing this story, but the tickets for the stage play half a year later had been booked in advance.

Since 2013, various news about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has been released from time to time, and even after the end of the Harry Potter series for more than 4 years, Rowling and Warner Bros. Pictures have never let this magical world leave the audience's sight. Now that "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" has been released, the feelings of the old "Ha fans" and the new fans added in the past 4 years will become the most loyal box office contributors to the film.