The head of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, is ready to work on more Harry Potter movies with JK Rowling.
During Warner Bros. Discovery Thursday, David Zaslav quoted Harry Potter as one of the franchises he hopes to continue during his tenure at the studio. The executive has expressed interest in working again with Harry Potter author JK Rowling for more Wizarding World projects after this year’s release Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets.
“We’re really going to focus on franchises,” explained David Zaslav. “We haven’t had a Superman movie in 13 years. We haven’t had a Harry Potter movie in 15 years. over the last 25 years. So a focus on the franchise — one of the big advantages we have, House of the Dragon being an example of that, Game of Thrones, taking advantage of Sex and the City, Lord of the Rings — we have when even the right to make Lord of the Rings movies. Which movies have brands that are understood and loved all over the world?”
Zaslav continued, “Outside of the United States, most overall, Europe, Latin America, Asia, has 40% of the theaters that we have here in the United States and there are local content. So when you have a franchise movie you can often win two to three times the amount of money you make in the US because you get a slot machine. And a focus on great movies that are loved, that are in tents, that people are going to leave early from dinner to go see – and we have plenty of those. Batman, Superman, Aquaman, if we can do anything with JK [Rowling] on Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, what do we do with Game of Thrones? What do we do with a lot of the big franchises that we have? We focus on franchises.
Warner Bros. released eight Harry Potter films between 2001 and 2011 and three fantastic beasts films between 2016 and 2022, with the latter hitting theaters the same day it merged with Discovery. The eleven projects have collectively grossed over $9.6 billion at the worldwide box office, making JK Rowling’s Wizarding World one of the most successful franchises of all time.
However, fantastic beasts not going as well as Harry Potterwith the latest movie, Dumbledore’s secrets, earning $405.2 million worldwide, making it the lowest-grossing Wizarding World film to date. Warner Bros. Discovery currently has no Wizarding World projects in development, as reported by Variety.
In the years since the release of the eight Harry Potter movies, JK Rowling has also become a controversial figure following a series of attacks on the transgender community. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and other Wizarding World stars have spoken out against Rowling’s anti-trans views in recent years.
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Source: EW
