Who Owns Harry Potter – The world of fiction is one of the best worlds for children and adults to participate in, it allows them to go into a world in which they do not have anything to lose, and they can experience adventures as no one else can, it is a world in which anything is possible, and speculation is your friend. It is fun to predict what it would do to us by the time we are finished with the book or the movie. One of the best fictional worlds is that of Harry Potter.
There is not a person in this world who has not heard of Harry Potter. There are legions of fans who have read every book and have gone to the theatres to watch the movie sincerely. They have always been patient regarding everything that the writer has done to bring them a world in which they can explore and participate in. This effort has resulted in critical acclaim and has brought millions of dollars to the ones associated with the franchise.
The franchise is regarded as one of the best because it has stuck to its source material and has not faltered from it. The books were regarded as one of the best novel series and always had rereading value attached to them. The books are being read by the people who love the series and want to remember the old days. It has always allowed people to get away from their worldly struggles and enjoy a world that does not control them.
Throughout the years, there have been many competitors that have challenged this franchise, but none of them have gotten close to being the way the Harry Potter franchise has been today. It has received critical acclaim in almost every genre, and the people associated with it have made a fortune. All of the success has been equally shared by its patrons, which has allowed them to continue the legacy and find new things to do with the franchise. The commitment to the source material has given the franchise owners a lot of recognition and has set their careers on the path of success.
We will be looking at the different rights and information about those rights regarding Harry Potter. We will be discussing how the franchise came into being while also seeing why it got critical acclaim.
Information Regarding Harry Potter
The Harry Potter wizarding world came into being when JK Rowling, the franchise author, wrote the first title named the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997. The story was about a boy who survived the magical spell of death from the biggest and most powerful dark wizard in history, Voldemort.
The story follows him and his two friends that he makes throughout the school year, going on an adventure fighting monsters and bad guys to secure the philosopher’s stone and prevent it from getting into the wrong hands. As soon as it was released, this book was met with surprise and critical acclaim from everyone. It is regarded as one of the best book series of all time, which lead to six more books that finally helped conclude the franchise, while there were also spinoff and extra books regarding bonus content from the writer herself.
This franchise has been ever-growing since the first book and has sparked a lot of interest in almost every age group. There have been theme park rides and merchandise everywhere related to it, while the food put in the movies is being replicated by chefs worldwide. It has become a franchise that has connected thousands of readers and has given them something to talk about and share their experiences of the books and movies.
The books are the best part of the franchise and have made millions of dollars in sales. The later books have made a critical impact on the series, especially Goblet of Fire. Harry Potter accidentally gets inducted into a competition that is being held between three top schools of magic.
The story follows Harry’s journey throughout the year fighting in the competition. How competing in it attracted attention to his already famous name, and how his best friend, Ron, got jealous of him getting all of the praise attention. The interactions between the character and the chemistry attracted everyone to this series. The creative and well thought wizarding world is what most people got attracted to since they could not find comfort in their world.
There is not a person in the world who has not seen a single Harry Potter movie. It has allowed the people to get invested in the magical world and has inspired legions of fans to get connected, and has made a fan following out of the characters present in the movies. These characters have given people they relate with, and the people playing them have become famous actors who have turned into household names.
The franchise has been split in many ways and has been in the hands of many individuals throughout its history, and we will be taking a look at the long history and how everything came to be in this merger of the franchises and which the rights have gone to. The rights are not singular since the ownership of the franchise has been divided into many sections due to the enormous success of the books and any material released under the wizarding world banner.
The franchise will be nearing its 24th-year run at the end of this year and will be one of the highest-grossing ongoing franchises in the history of publishing. Now, we will be talking about the rights that the various people and companies associated with it, which will give us an idea about the future of the franchise and an idea of who possesses what section of the franchises.
Who Owns Harry Potter?
- Publishing Rights
The publishing rights for any books and novels are stilled owned by JK Rowling, the author of all of the books, including extra books she wrote for charity: Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, among other entries. If the writer decides to write another book in the series, no one can stop her from doing so since the publishing and all creative writing rights are in the writer’s hands.
The rights for the books have been negotiated with her a lot, but she has been firm on the decision of holding the rights and the creative control to her. Thus, she had decided always to keep the book rights to her if she needs to bring about changes in the source material and because the books were more dear to her than the movies. It is where she gave it her all to publish the characters she had created.
- Production Rights
The production rights of the franchise have gone from company to company in recent years, Warner Bros owned the production rights for the franchise until 2018, where NBCUniversal bought the rights for themselves, and any future movie or show that will be made about the characters will be according to them and will be overseen by them, so the production rights currently reside with NBCUniversal.
In the past, Warner Bros made the first eight movies. That is why the copyrights for those movies still rest with them. In a nutshell, the future production rights for the franchise rest with NBCUniversal. While Warner Bros’s movies are already made still are owned and copyrighted by them, they cannot be released in another company banner or be copyrighted and claimed by anyone else. NBCUniversal will be in charge of the future shows that will be made, which were announced in recent years.
- Gaming Rights
The Harry Potter games were initially made by Electronica Arts and first distributed by them. Warner Bros still owned the rights. Still, after the success of the games, the rights were reverted to Warner Bros’s Gaming company Portkey Games which the company made specifically for the Harry Potter games. They got the rights back from EA and then continued to make games that were very interactive and utilize the characters in different environments.
The Verdict
The verdict of the article is that the rights have always been circulating between various companies. Chances are the future will also be uncertain about the rights. For now, the publishing rights have stayed with JK Rowling while the film rights have gone to NBCUniversal, and the rights of the first eight films have stayed with Warner Bros. The game rights were with EA for a while, which was then again bought by Portkey Games, a gaming company created by WB.
These are the rights that were primarily managed by the companies and will be until specified otherwise. We hope you got to know about the Harry Potter franchise more. Thank you!
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