In this modern age of IP-driven franchise filmmaking, it has gradually become impossible to believe that any once-marketable name could become too toxic to leave alive. As the years march on, the box office returns trend downwards, and the public perception becomes more enraged, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and friends are testing that theory.
Warner Bros. Entertainment has two gigantic world-conquering empires; Harry Potter and the DC Extended Universe. The latter had a rough few years, backwhen Zack Snyder ran the show, but its recovery has been gradual and powerful. With the larger DCEU in a slightly precarious position, it’s worth wondering whether the Wizarding World and the big name attached to it are an enchanting blessing or a terrible curse.
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In 1999, Warner Bros. purchased the film rights to the 1997 novelHarry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stoneand its first three sequels for a reported $1.65 million. For the first few years of the new millennium, eachHarry Potterfilm landed firmly among the top 3 best-selling films of their release year. It is fundamentallyimpossible to overstate the financial successof the Harry Potter film franchise and the resulting merchandise. For a decade, Warner Bros. had a monster hit in their holster with limited overhead and no threat of disappointment. To put it in perspective, the Harry Potter film franchise is the fourth most financially successful IP in cinematic history, before counting the merchandise profits. The general toys, games, apparel, and so on have raked in north of $15 billion, and they have not slowed down to any significant degree. This is the kind of IP a studio dreams about. A couple of million dollars were spent, over $20 billion in returns with no sign of stopping. It’s that kind of success that leadsone to become complacent.
So, Warner Bros. has aseemingly unkillable cash cowfor eight films, the series ends as it is supposed to, and the studio is left without its favorite son. Maybe they could turn to the DC Comics brand, but we all know how that went now. Half a decade passed before WB returned to the well, which is a truly staggering show of restraint, given the circumstances. Their first effort,Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, beat out their ownBatman v. Supermanto be one of the biggest hits of 2016 and became the fifth most successful Wizarding World film. A pretty good return, so they tried again, to radically reduced success.Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwaldhad the worst financial return and critical response of any film in the franchise. It didn’t have to hold that title for long, however, because this year’sSecrets of Dumbledorehandily performed even worse.
The Wizarding World franchise is trending downhilland doesn’t have the box office power it used to. There is a myriad of reasons contributing to that reality and very little to be done to address them. Pure quality must play some part. Middling or terrible reviews plagued both of the most recent films, ensuring audiences who were never hardcore fans or who had left that habit behind would stay home. The fact that the newer franchise isn’t related to most of the characters people know is also a pretty significant mitigating factor to box office success. In addition, modern audiences have many other huge franchises fighting for their attention that were not present for the previous Harry Potter series run.
So, the returns are shrinking, and the new series doesn’t have the legs of its predecessor, but the Wizarding World name can surely survive that, right? Just reduce the budget, go theSoloorRogue Oneroute with a few fanservice-heavy prequels, and pump out one a year to substantial, but not groundbreaking success, right? Unfortunately for Warner Bros., people have started toturn against their most profitable franchisefor reasons entirely out of their control.
There’s no way to measure public outrage, aside from monitoring social media or wide-reaching survey movements, but a not-insubstantial chunk of the audience is boycotting the Wizarding World. The controversial and regularly contentious public statements of J.K. Rowling have drastically impacted the financial viability of the series she wrote. Modern incarnations of the Wizarding World have to go out of their way toclarify that Rowling won’t be profiting from their success. Casual fans, viewers who’ve outgrown their obsession, and even some hardcore fans have been forced by their conscious to walk away from this once-unstoppable franchise. It’s difficult to believe, but among the many storytelling problems of the franchise, the outwardly hostile behavior of the franchise’s creator could actively render the brand too toxic to survive.
Warner Bros. is in a strange position today, between their intensely controversial takes on beloved DC Comics adaptations to their rapidly hemorrhaging Wizarding World empire. The slow death of Harry Potter should serve as a lesson to the theater. Whether by ill-advised writing, the indifferent march of time, or theindefensible hate at the heart of its creator, even the biggest name in entertainment can suffer a slow death.
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