Continuing to generate box office magic, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has crossed the $800 million mark at the worldwide box office. The announcement was made today by Sue Kroll, President of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.
The acclaimed film — set in a new era in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, decades before Harry Potter and half a world away — is the Studio’s top-grossing film internationally for 2016. In addition, Fantastic Beasts just earned five BAFTA Award nominations: for Outstanding British Film, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, and Best Special Visual Effects.
In her announcement, Kroll stated, “Returning to the wizarding world in ‘Fantastic Beasts’ was a labor of love for all of us, and it has been a privilege to watch audiences around the world embrace a new cast of characters in this world created by the incomparable J.K. Rowling. This is an extraordinary milestone for the first film in our new franchise and speaks to the remarkable talents of the cast and filmmakers who worked so hard to bring it to the screen. Congratulations to them, as well as to the Warner Bros. marketing and distribution teams on this great success.”
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them stars Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) as wizarding world Magizoologist Newt Scamander, under the direction of David Yates, who helmed the last four “Harry Potter” blockbusters.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them also stars Katherine Waterston (Steve Jobs, Inherent Vice), Tony Award winner Dan Fogler (“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”), Alison Sudol (Dig, “Transparent”), Ezra Miller (Trainwreck, upcoming Justice League), two-time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton (In America, Sweet and Lowdown), Oscar winner Jon Voight (Coming Home, TV’s “Ray Donovan”), Carmen Ejogo (Selma), and Colin Farrell (“True Detective”).
The film marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, whose beloved Harry Potter books were adapted into the top-grossing film franchise of all time. Her script was inspired by the Hogwarts textbook “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” written by her character Newt Scamander.
In addition to Yates, the film reunited a number of people from the “Harry Potter” features, including producers David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram. Tim Lewis, Neil Blair and Rick Senat served as executive producers.
Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Heyday Films Production, a David Yates Film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The film is being distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
