A Celebration of Harry Potter - 2018

[Viator]

Universal Orlando Resort has publicly announced that "A Celebration of Harry Potter" will return on Janruary 26th to the 28th of next year.

Dates for A Celebration of Harry Potter 2018 Announced for Universal Orlando | Inside Universal

What do you think might be shown off? Would you think a new look at Fantastic Beasts 2? Or would you expect news on the replacement of Dragon Challenge? Comment down below!

 

[Viator]

James and Oliver Phelps, with Stanislav Yanevski has been officially announced as the first guests for Celebration.

“A Celebration of Harry Potter” Returns to Universal Orlando Resort from January 26-28, 2018 | Inside Universal

 

[Teebin]

It is bizzare how potter has become a small cottage industry for these folks. When they aren’t in Orlando, they are hired to appear at geeky-this and comic-that’s all around the world. I saw one event where Bonnie and Stanis appeared in Argentina ...

 

[Brian G.]

So the Opening Ceremony seemed to be met with a collective shrug. I overheard a lot of people in attendance as we were leaving saying things like "That's it?", or "What was the point of that?"

You got a celebration of 20 years of the first book being published in the US, the new FB film, and a future ride coming that has yet to be announced... and the most exciting thing they announced is a tertiary audiobook (where narrator Andrew Lincoln botched the pronunciation of Snitch - said "Snidget" or something - that induced some groans and chuckles) and an Exhibition in another country that literally fell on deaf ears....

 

[Nick]

They didn't hype up Fantastic Beasts during CoHP back in 2016 either when the first film came out either. I know there's still two more days, but i'm just confused why WB seems to not want to hype up FB.

For example, why are all the celebrities from the 8 Potter movies and none from FB? I know those Potter movies are definitely more popular, but if you have a chance to build a one-on-one relationship between the fans and Newt (Eddie Redmayne) or any of the other characters that I already forgot about, take it!

 

[Scott W.]

They didn't hype up Fantastic Beasts during CoHP back in 2016 either when the first film came out either. I know there's still two more days, but i'm just confused why WB seems to not want to hype up FB.

For example, why are all the celebrities from the 8 Potter movies and none from FB? I know those Potter movies are definitely more popular, but if you have a chance to build a one-on-one relationship between the fans and Newt (Eddie Redmayne) or any of the other characters that I already forgot about, take it!

I imagine it's because the people in FB still have a career.

 

[Nick]

I imagine it's because the people in FB still have a career.

So what? I imagine that WB has contract stipulations to where the actors do select media appearances.

I question what makes the event special if it’s just the same stuff and same actors every year.

 

[Scott W.]

So what? I imagine that WB has contract stipulations to where the actors do select media appearances.

I question what makes the event special if it’s just the same stuff and same actors every year.

Most media appearances are nearer the time of a movie's release. Eddie Redmayne is out promoting his new movie with Maisie Williams just now, I can’t imagine that production company would be happy about him promoting another movie.

The thought of going to an event like this is my worst nightmare.

 

[Viator]

They didn't hype up Fantastic Beasts during CoHP back in 2016 either when the first film came out either. I know there's still two more days, but i'm just confused why WB seems to not want to hype up FB.

For example, why are all the celebrities from the 8 Potter movies and none from FB? I know those Potter movies are definitely more popular, but if you have a chance to build a one-on-one relationship between the fans and Newt (Eddie Redmayne) or any of the other characters that I already forgot about, take it!

Didn't they though bring a BTS of FB for 2016?

Honestly, I am not going to be surprised if nothing major is announced anywhere else for the film's or the parks. They still have Supercharged to open, as they should at least keep it a little quiet until late summer for presumably FF.

 

[fryoj]

They certainly could show a trailer of Fantastic Beasts there though. Even just a teaser trailer would get a huge pop from a Potter crowd.

 

[Viator]

They certainly could show a trailer of Fantastic Beasts there though. Even just a teaser trailer would get a huge pop from a Potter crowd.

I would of thought that if they were to do that, it would've been at the Opening Ceremony.

 

[Nick]

Most media appearances are nearer the time of a movie's release. Eddie Redmayne is out promoting his new movie with Maisie Williams just now, I can’t imagine that production company would be happy about him promoting another movie.

The thought of going to an event like this is my worst nightmare.

It doesn't have to be Redmayne, though. They could easily have many of the supporting characters as most of those don't have much going on. Dan Fogel (Jacob Kowalski) or Allison Sudel (Queenie Goldstein) would be easy gets considering how little they have going on right now.

 

[Brian G.]

Went through the Expo (well one of them) and they had the old FB promo posters hanging. Doesn’t seem hard to have the new movie advertised somewhere.

 

[Scott W.]

It doesn't have to be Redmayne, though. They could easily have many of the supporting characters as most of those don't have much going on. Dan Fogel (Jacob Kowalski) or Allison Sudel (Queenie Goldstein) would be easy gets considering how little they have going on right now.

I think @fryoj hit the nail in the head with a trailer being the simple solution.

To answer your earlier question, I don’t think it needs to be anything special. The IP is massive and will always attract big crowds and once the coaster opens, they could do virtually nothing and still have record breaking crowds.

 

[Nick]

I think @fryoj hit the nail in the head with a trailer being the simple solution.

To answer your earlier question, I don’t think it needs to be anything special. The IP is massive and will always attract big crowds and once the coaster opens, they could do virtually nothing and still have record breaking crowds.

People will come to the CoHP, but it still can't hurt to even provide even something like a section of the Expo where it hypes up the new movie and shows off certain props, locations, etc that haven't been announced yet.

And yeah, the POTTER brand is huge, but the Fantastic Beasts brand is somewhat meager. It had a tepid response in 2016 despite making over $800M WW. Mostly people just went to see it because they were Potter fans and many came away unsatisfied. And there's already controversy going into FB2 about Johnny Depp playing Gindelwald. You'd think they'd try to get fans excited for it, even if it is 10 months away still.

 

[captainmoch]

People will come to the CoHP, but it still can't hurt to even provide even something like a section of the Expo where it hypes up the new movie and shows off certain props, locations, etc that haven't been announced yet.

And yeah, the POTTER brand is huge, but the Fantastic Beasts brand is somewhat meager. It had a tepid response in 2016 despite making over $800M WW. Mostly people just went to see it because they were Potter fans and many came away unsatisfied. And there's already controversy going into FB2 about Johnny Depp playing Gindelwald. You'd think they'd try to get fans excited for it, even if it is 10 months away still.

Gonna be honest, I've seen very little enthusiasm for the FB series in general. The first film did not necessarily do great domestically, and with the controversy surrounding the second, I just don't see the series taking off in the states. It's possible it'll be saved by the worldwide market, or maybe FB2 will be surprisingly extremely strong and attract many people.

 

[fryoj]

Gonna be honest, I've seen very little enthusiasm for the FB series in general. The first film did not necessarily do great domestically, and with the controversy surrounding the second, I just don't see the series taking off in the states. It's possible it'll be saved by the worldwide market, or maybe FB2 will be surprisingly extremely strong and attract many people.

It did 230+ million domestic and did better that PoA worldwide. Unless FB2 bombs, it's fine.

 

[jtsalien]

It did 230+ million domestic and did better that PoA worldwide. Unless FB2 bombs, it's fine.

All true. But it was the same as TFA syndrome with Star Wars. Anything above a mediocre film was going to crush it because of the pent up demand. Movies that do "fine" aren't what studios want in the age of the MCU. There's certainly been more bad PR than good for FB2, so I would definitely agree that WB has missed the boat here. These fans are their advocates for the franchise and could've been used to spread good word of mouth.

 

[Nick]

It did 230+ million domestic and did better that PoA worldwide. Unless FB2 bombs, it's fine.

Sure it did, if you don't adjust for inflation. Besides, FB only beat out Prisoner of Azkaban's 2004 total of $796M by $18M even without adjusting.

If we do adjust though, Prisoner of Azkaban made $1.013B as of November 2016 when Fantastic Beasts was released. FB made $814M WW and I would wager that FB2 won't be much higher than $600-650M. Nothing wrong with that, but i'm sure when WB approved Five movies, they were expecting a little more bang for their buck.

 

[fryoj]

All true. But it was the same as TFA syndrome with Star Wars. Anything above a mediocre film was going to crush it because of the pent up demand. Movies that do "fine" aren't what studios want in the age of the MCU. There's certainly been more bad PR than good for FB2, so I would definitely agree that WB has missed the boat here. These fans are their advocates for the franchise and could've been used to spread good word of mouth.

Sure it did, if you don't adjust for inflation. Besides, FB only beat out Prisoner of Azkaban's 2004 total of $796M by $18M even without adjusting.

If we do adjust though, Prisoner of Azkaban made $1.013B as of November 2016 when Fantastic Beasts was released. FB made $814M WW and I would wager that FB2 won't be much higher than $600-650M. Nothing wrong with that, but i'm sure when WB approved Five movies, they were expecting a little more bang for their buck.

I was responding to the comment about it not taking off in the states and general pessimism for the series mainly. It did over $200 million here and $800 million worldwide. These were never going to do Potter numbers and WB knew that. Sure they would have liked $300M/$1B type numbers, but I don't think they freaked out over the numbers it did. It's nothing like TFA. If they release a Potter movie with Daniel, Emma, and Rupert in it, then we can talk about a TFA comparison.

Also, the Potter movies, while big, never were box office juggernauts. The first and last were bigger, but still, DH2 is the only one in the top 50 domestic. SS is the only one in the adjusted for inflation top 100. Most weren't even the biggest the year it came out. They always were bigger internationally than in the states and FB will play out the same way. For an original story with all original characters it probably did better than it should have. The next movie has Dumbledore, so that should draw more of the Potter crowd in. So like I said. It's fine.