Author mines Harry Potter for new magic

The gates to J.K. Rowling's wizarding world are set to reopen with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but the jury is still out on whether the five-movie spinoff will conjure up the magic that turned Harry Potter into a global entertainment phenomenon.

With no best-selling books this time around, the story penned by Rowling will test if the young audience that drove eight Potter films to gross $7 billion worldwide will turn out for a film set 70 years before Harry Potter first entered Hogwarts school.

Set in New York City in 1926, the new Warner Bros film that will be released worldwide on Nov 18 holds big potential. If successful, it could dramatically expand the Potter brand of books, toys, costumes and theme parks as Rowling geographically extends a magical world previously confined to the United Kingdom.