Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hit movie theatres at the weekend and J. K. Rowling’s screenwriting debut is already proving to be a huge success.
The film is based on a fictitious text-book that appears in the Harry Potter novels. Written from the viewpoint of “Mazizoologist” Newt Scamander, Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set in the 1920s, some 70 years before the first Harry Potter book.
The British fantasy film is directed by David Yates and stars Eddie Redmayne (as Newt Scamander), Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo and Colin Farrell.
Here Guinness World Records shares ten of the most magical records set by J. K. Rowling's wizard franchise, Harry Potter fans and real-life beasts.
1. Largest gathering of people dressed as Harry Potter
Pictured at the top of this page are 521 people who are sure to love Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
It may not be enchanted, or built on a lake, but Tanbridge House School in Horsham, West Sussex, UK, looks like the closest thing to Hogwarts that a muggle will ever find. On 5 March 2015, a record-setting number of pupils dressed up as Harry Potter, complete with Hogwarts uniform, spectacles, a fake forehead scar, pointed magician’s hat, and a magic wand.
2. Highest annual earnings for an author
In 2007–08, Forbes estimated that author J. K. Rowling earned a staggering $300 m (£161 m) across the year – more than any other writer before or since. Rowling also became the First billion-dollar author, securing a place on the Forbes Rich List in 2004. This latest instalment in Rowling’s wizard world will now doubt expand her earnings even further.
3. Largest gathering of people dressed as wizards
Actor Eddie Redmayne plays a shy yet eccentric wizard who works at the Ministry of Magic in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie.
The most people dressed as wizards is 252, achieved by Maxipotential (UK), in Alderley Edge, UK, on 19 June 2016. The event was part of the Wizard Walk, an event to raise money for Max Bailey. It aimed to raise awareness of his condition, scoliosis.
4. Largest collection of Harry Potter memorabilia
With each new book and film there is more paraphernalia for Menahem Asher Silva Vargas (Mexico) to add to his collection.
There are few Harry Potter fans as committed to the boy wizard as Menahem. At the last count, on November 5, 2013, Menahem Potter – as he’s known to his friends – had 3,097 unique items. Among his prized possessions are bedclothes, books, pin badges, caps, and wands.
5. Largest walking robot
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is full of amazing magical creatures.
This incredible beast is a radio-controlled robot dragon measuring 15.72 m (51 ft 7 in) long by 8.2 m (26 ft 10 in) tall. Fanny was made by Zollner Elektronik AG (DEU) in Zandt, Germany, for an annual folklore festival. The terrifying creature is powered by a 2-litre turbo diesel engine and weighs 11 tonnes (24,250 lb) – about the same as 158 Komodo dragons, at c. 70 kg (154 lb) the real-world’s largest lizard.
6. Largest thunder beast
There’s nothing supernatural about the thunder beast, which was a real-life monster. Also known as brontotheres or titanotheres, thunder beasts were huge prehistoric odd-toed ungulates (mammals that, like horses, walk on their toenails) that resembled rhinoceroses.
The largest thunder beast was Brontotherium, which lived in North America around 55.8–33.9 million years ago. Characterized by a very large Y-shaped, horn-like structure of bone on its nose, this mighty herbivorous mammal stood around 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) high at the shoulder, and may have weighed up to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb).
When native American Indians first found the huge fossilized bones of this mammal, they mistook them for those of a legendary beast called the thunder horse that jumped down from the sky to Earth and made loud noises during thunderstorms. Based on this folklore, scientists named the animal Brontotherium (“thunder beast”).
7. Fastest selling children’s book
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours of being on sale in the USA on July 21, 2007. Fans lined up around the block to be among the first to buy it. Starting at one minute past midnight, the seventh—and final—novel in the Harry Potter series sold an average of 345,833 books per hour.
8. Largest gathering of people dressed as witches
Katherine Waterston stars as Porpentina "Tina" Goldstein in J. K. Rowling’s new movie. She is a likable witch who used to work for the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) but was unfairly demoted.
Perhaps she would have been found on the main town street in Sort, Lleida, where 1,607 witches – well, people dressed as witches! – got together on 16 Nov 2013 to perform an incantation to bring the participants luck for the 2013 Spanish Christmas lottery.
The participants from all dressed in a black hat and a black floor-length dress, and carried a broom, as per the official witch outfit specified by the GWR guidelines.
9. Largest model of Hogwarts Castle
Stuart Craig and other members of the Warner Bros. Art Department created an enormous 1:24-scale replica of the famous boarding school. It measures 50 ft (15.24 m) across and contains more than 2,500 fiber-optic lights.
10. Largest audience for a magic performance
Perfoming magic that even Harry Potter would be amazed at, the Ehrlich Brothers from Germany put on an illusion show to in front of 38,503 people at the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt, Germany, on 11 June 2016.
Director of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them David Yates has said that Rowling has already written a second film and she’s got ideas for the third one – stay tuned to find out if the new spin-off franchise can break any Guinness World Records titles of its own.
