Warner Bros. Discovery CEO hints at possibility of making more 'Harry Potter' films with JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Here's some exciting news for all the Potterheads out there. Warner Bros. Discoveryis once again planning to explore the wizarding world of Harry Potter, but only if author JKRowling agrees to do so.
Warner Bros. DiscoveryCEO David Zaslav recently hinted at the studio's interest in working on more films of the franchise. During a Q3 earnings call, David said, "We’re going to focus on franchises."
''We haven’t had a 'Superman' movie in 13 years. We haven’t done a 'Harry Potter' in 15 years. The DC movies and the 'Harry Potter' movies provided a lot of profits for Warner Bros.... over the past 25 years,'' he said.
Daniel Radcliffeon whyhe spoke against JK Rowling's views
Further, the CEO spoke about the future and hit markets of severalfranchisesaround the world. He said, "Outside the U.S., most in the aggregate, Europe, Latin America, and Asia, have 40% of the theatres that we have here in the U.S., and there is local content. And so when you have a franchise movie, you can often make two to three times the amount of money that you make in the U.S. because you get a slot.''
During his interaction, David added further, "And a focus on the big movies that are loved, that are tentpoles, that people are going to leave early from dinner to go see—— and we have a lot of them." Batman, Superman, Aquaman, if we can do something with JK on Harry Potter going forward, Lord of the Rings, what are we doing with Game of Thrones? What are we doing with a lot of the big franchises that we have? "We're focused on franchises."
David's comments come at a time whenRowling has been facing a severe backlash over her transphobic comments. It also raises aquestion of whether the original star cast of the film will agree to come on board, as most of them, including the lead stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, haveslammed the author for her remarks.
Warner Bros. backed all eight 'Harry Potter' films from 2001–2011 and earned a whopping $7.7 billion globally. After wrapping up the first film, the studio again brought Rowling on board for the Fantastic Beasts franchise. "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore," was the recent film of the fantasy world, which was released this year in April and grossed around $405.1 million worldwide, according to THR.
