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 With no best-selling books this time around, "Fantastic
Beasts," featuring a story penned by Rowling, will test if the
young audience that drove eight Potter films to gross $7 billion
worldwide for Warner Bros, will turn out for a film set 70 years
before Harry Potter first entered Hogwarts school.
Set in New York City in 1926, the film that will be released
worldwide on Nov. 18 holds big potential. If successful, it
could dramatically expand the Potter brand of books, toys,
costumes and theme parks as Rowling geographically extends a
magical world previously confined to the United Kingdom.
"Spin-offs are usually rip-offs, but in this case, with J.K.
Rowling attached, I think it's a great idea," said Jeff Bock,
senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations.
Ten days ahead of release, with no reviews yet, Bock and other
analysts are predicting a $75 million-$100 million opening
weekend for the movie in North America - about half the gross
for the last Potter movie in 2011.
Published in 2001, "Fantastic Beasts" began life as a slim
textbook, belonging to Harry Potter, listing imaginary creatures
and illustrated with basic pen and ink drawings.
Warner Bros later approached Rowling to turn the book into a
movie. She came up with a story that centers on actor Eddie
Redmayne's Newt Scamander, a "magizoologist" whose case full of
creatures escapes.
The new story was welcomed by longtime Potter producer David
Heyman and director David Yates.
"Sure, you don't have the security of having 150 million people
having read the books. But the advantage of people not knowing
the story, not being upset when something is left out, is a
gift," Heyman said.
HOGWARTS, GRINDELWALD AND DUMBLEDORE
Little is known about the four future films, or how they will
link up to the original Harry Potter stories. But Rowling has
said they will trace the rise of a powerful dark wizard named
Gellert Grindelwald, who was famous in the Potter world for
dueling beloved Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in 1945.
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 "As the series develops, the connective tissue with the
(Harry Potter books) will become more overt and explicit,"
Heyman said.
Just as the Potter movies, "Fantastic Beasts" showcases
Rowling's imagination, from typewriters tapping away by
themselves to computer-generated creatures like the mischievous
Niffler or the rhinoceros-like Erumpent.
But the darker storyline and a cast of little-known actors
playing adult characters could limit its appeal to families.
"Now they are catering to an older demographic with this new
franchise, will it really feed into that family market base?"
Bock said.
For Yates, the biggest appeal of "Fantastic Beasts" is Rowling
herself. "You don't need big movie stars if you have J.K. Rowling.
Her stories are the star," he said.
While there is no novel tie-in, a book version of Rowling's
screenplay is currently 12th on the Amazon.com best- sellers list
ahead of its release next week.
Publishers Scholastic Inc, are releasing a series of related books
and character guides but the original "Fantastic Beasts" will not be
reissued until March 2017, said Ellie Berger, president of
Scholastic’s Trade division.
Whether there will be books to accompany future films will depend on
Rowling.
"She is a master storyteller and she does create this world, so when
she's ready to have that exist in a book, that's when she comes to
us," Berger said.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy and Jill Serjeant; Editing by
Marguerita Choy)
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