Fantastic Beasts is a hit, and a critic's darling for Warner Bros

Los Angeles

WARNER Bros and JK Rowling pulled off an exceptionally difficult magic trick over the weekend. Not only did they bring the Harry Potter film franchise back to life, they also did it without Harry Potter.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a movie burdened with laying the foundation for four planned sequels, as well as strengthening the entire Harry Potter business empire, arrived to a solid US$75 million in ticket sales in North America.

The film, which cost an estimated US$330 million to make and market worldwide, collected an additional US$143.3 million in partial release overseas.

Just as important for Warner were strong reviews. The studio's last three big-budget movies were excoriated by critics. Warner's vast marketing department saved the day in those cases, using slick ads to power films like Suicide Squad to big openings. But this time the studio had the creative goods: Fant…