At one point in time, the Harry Potter franchise was one of the most bankable franchises around. The books were fire, the movies (the original 8) were fantastic and kept building upon one another, and they even did a stage play as the “eighth book” and it was a smash hit. But when JK Rowling (who is now very infamous for her thoughts on certain matters) decided to pen a new set of movies (something she had never done before) via the Fantastic Beasts franchise…things got…bad. And now, the third film in that lot, The Secrets Of Dumbledore, may hold the fate of all that comes next.
For those that don’t recall, Fantastic Beasts was actually supposed to be a 3-film set, but then got extended to five for…well, reasons that weren’t fully explained. But from the get-go, the movies weren’t even close to the Harry Potter tales that came before. The main character of Newt Scamander was fine enough, but the plot, the darker nature of things, and more didn’t really help things get better. The second film, The Crimes of Grindelwald, was fair enough but its box office totals weren’t appealing.
And The Secrets Of Dumbledore has had a LONG road to getting released, and as a new report states, if the movie doesn’t go well, the 4th and 5th films may not be greenlit:
“There’s speculation about whether or not Fantastic Beasts will complete its ambitions as a five-film franchise. At the moment, there’s no screenplay for a fourth installment, sources have confirmed. Executives at Warner Bros. are waiting to see how The Secrets of Dumbledore is received before giving films four and five the greenlight.”
That is rather distressing, and presently, it’s not looking good as the overseas box office wasn’t exactly grand in its moneymaking, and if the domestic box office doesn’t surpass it? It might seriously fail, a true first for the Harry Potter franchise.
Source: Variety
