While the Warner Bros.-owned (WBD) Harry Potter franchise remains generally delightful for fans of fantasy and magic, it just doesn't elicit the same sparkle these days that it once did.
That's never been more painfully clear than in the lackluster performance of "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore," which brought in an all-time franchise low of $43 million domestically on its opening weekend starting April 15.
There's also J.K. Rowling's long trail of comments about transgender people on social media, which has turned many fans off (and done Harry Potter no favors in the process).
Despite the controversy around its author, the Harry Potter franchise is still thriving outside movie theaters.
It's made $15 billion since its debut from the sales of books, toys, and games alone, and that number is still rising.
So even if the Fantastic Beasts spin-off is a failure (and it seems safe to say it is at this point), there's plenty of ways Warner Bros. can continue to eke money out of Potterheads, as the Harry Potter fandom is lovingly called.
Its next big bet in that venue are two video game co-published by Warner Bros. (in partnership with NetEase (NTES) Games and slated for release later this year.
Warner Bros. Games Is Betting Big on its Harry Potter Stable
The first of the two upcoming games is called "Harry Potter: Magic Awakened," a trading card-based adventure that invites the player to explore Hogwarts, duel other players, and collect spell cards to build out their magical repertoire.
It's due to come out some time this year, although a specific date has not been announced yet.
It will be available for both iPhone and Android users.
Warner Bros. Games/Portkey Games
The second game is called "Hogwarts Legacy" and offers players a much larger open world to explore. Much like "Magic Awakened," you'll get to become a witch or wizard, hang out in famous locales from the films, and fight big, burly monsters.
That game is slated for a holiday 2022 release across all video game consoles in the current generation, including the Nintendo Switch, Sony's (SNE) PlayStation 5, and Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox Series X|S.
Pre-registration is open now.
Both title are being made by Portkey Games, an offshoot of Warner Bros. Games exclusively dedicated to Harry Potter properties.
It's made several other titles, including a free-to-play puzzle game called "Harry Potter: Puzzles and Spells," which was published by mobile gaming giant Zynga (ZNGA).
But "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," the second game developed by "Pokémon Go" makers Niantic and published by Portkey, was a financial failure, shuttering after only two years in operation. It only made $39.1 million during that time.
However, "Magic Awakened" already seems to have cast a spell of success in its limited Asian release (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao) in 2021, pulling in $228 million since its Sept. 9 launch.
That makes it the second highest-grossing Harry Potter game of all time behind Jam City's (XPOA) "Hogwarts Mystery," which has raked in $342 million in global revenue since its March 2018 launch.
More than 500,000 U.S. players have already pre-registered to play "Magic Awakened," and Portkey is incentivizing fans to pre-register for by offering an exclusive in-game card pack inspired by "Fantastic Beasts: The Secret of Dumbledore," which is hopefully more enticing than the film its based on.
