'Fantastic Beasts' Films: How Much is Too Much?

There's little doubt that moviegoers are hungry for more films set in the Harry Potter universe. The question is, exactly how hungry are they? When Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens this week, it will kick off a deluge of Potter-verse movies that may be more than audiences care to handle.

Fantastic Beasts, based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling novel, is a welcome return of cinematic magicians and muggles, but it's not coming all by itself. Originally planned as a trilogy, the new franchise is now, according to recent remarks from Rowling herself, going to expand across five films, not just three.

The revelation comes at a time when many movie sequels are struggling to find audiences, and planning an extensive list of sequels like this assumes that audiences will still be excited about the franchise years into the future, even before the studio has seen what the reaction to the first film will be. Pre-planned multi-film franchises have proven to be especially susceptible to franchise fatigue.

Young-adult-oriented franchises have been particularly hard hit by sequel-itis. Just this summer, news broke that the Divergent franchise will finish up its run with a made-for-TV movie after enthusiasm for the franchise's theatrical releases dropped off dramatically. You might think that the massively popular Harry Potter franchise is immune to such a fate, but take a look at The Hunger Games; even that once-gargantuan franchise turned in disappointing ticket sales for its final installment.

It's too early to say whether Fantastic Beasts will make a big enough splash to justify even one big-budget sequel, let alone two, let alone four. And if it's too early to say whether sequels are justified, it's too early to put them on the production schedule.