It features an ensemble cast that includes Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, Ron Perlman, and Colin Farrell.

It received generally positive reviews from critics and emerged a commercial success after grossing $814 million worldwide, making it the eighth highest-grossing film of 2016.

He observes Mary Lou Barebone, the non-magical ("No-Maj" or "Muggle") head of the New Salem Philanthropic Society, preaching that witches and wizards are real and dangerous.

Officials believe the obscurial in Newt's case is responsible for the spate of destruction including the killing of Senator Henry Shaw Jnr, when really it was down to a second one already in the city.

On Queenie sensing this, she rescues Jacob, then helps Newt and Tina escape and retrieve the case, before the sentences can be carried out.

Later, in a speakeasy dive bar, a tip from Tina's goblin informant Gnarlak leads the four to recapture the last two escaped creatures.

Graves approaches Credence, Mary Lou's adult adopted son, offering to free him from his abusive mother in exchange for helping to find the destructive obscurial.

Assuming Modesty is the obscurial's host, Graves dismisses Credence as a squib reneging on his promise to teach him magic in return for service.

Credence reveals he is the real host, having survived so long due to the intensity of his magic, and openly attacks the city.

As Credence returns to human form, MACUSA President Seraphina Picquery and the aurors enter to counterattack, shattering the obscurial.

Graves claims MACUSA's laws openly protect No-Majs at the expense of the magical community, and he no longer cares to live in hiding.

He admits to planning to unleash the obscurial to expose the magical community to No-Majs and frame Newt with his case of creatures for this.

Picquery fears the destruction too extensive to keep their world secret, but Newt releases his Thunderbird to disperse an creature extract that wipes recent bad memories across the city in the rain.

Zoë Kravitz appears in a photograph as Leta Lestrange, Newt's former love who betrayed his trust, to set up her role in the sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018).

[31] Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is mentioned several times as a school textbook in the Harry Potter book series, with Scamander named as the author.

First announced in September 2013 just two years after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the Fantastic Beasts project marked Rowling's debut as a screenwriter.

[41] After two months, the production moved to the Cunard Building and St George's Hall in Liverpool, which was transformed into 1920s New York City.

[47] The visual effects were provided by Cinesite, DNEG, Framestore, Image Engine, Moving Picture Company, Milk VFX and Rodeo FX.

[50][51] During "A Celebration of Harry Potter" at Universal Orlando Resort in February 2016, a featurette was released showcasing several interviews with various cast and crew members, as well as the first official behind-the-scenes footage.

[54][55] New images released at the time include the quartet running down a New York City alleyway; David Yates chatting to stars Katherine Waterston and Eddie Redmayne on the set in front of a blown out subway station; Colin Farrell's character, Percival Graves, interrogating an arrested and handcuffed Newt; and Graves and Credence putting up anti-magic propaganda.

[60] On 7 October 2016, Rowling also released on Pottermore four pieces of writing exclusively as an introduction to the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, titled History of Magic in North America.

The pack includes a constructible model of MACUSA, figures of Newt Scamander and a Niffler, and a six-level game campaign that adapts the film's events.

[6][67] Worldwide, the film grossed $219.9 million during its opening weekend in around 64 markets on 24,200 screens, both the fifth-biggest in Rowling's wizarding cinematic universe, and the seventh-biggest for the month of November 2016.

[69][71] The film vied with Bridget Jones' Baby and briefly won first place, only to be surpassed during the last days of 2016 by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

In total, the opening weekend was worth $7 million from 276 screens, which is the second-highest ever in the Wizarding World, behind Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them draws on Harry Potter's rich mythology to deliver a spin-off that dazzles with franchise-building magic all its own.

"[95] IndieWire's Eric Kohn gave the film a B+ saying that it "delivers the most satisfying period fantasy since Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ", and that its layers of sophistication made it one of the best Hollywood blockbusters of the year.

He calls Rowling "a champion of outsiders facing intolerance, segregation and demonization" and that although the film gets bogged down in exposition, the unexpectedly moving subtext carries the day.

Travers concludes "The real stars here are the beasts, supposedly ugly, weird and dangerous, but paragons of FX creativity in service of genuine ideas.

"[100] David Edelstein of New York Magazine called it a "distinctly unmagical slog", remarking that the beasts "aren't especially fantastic and the effects are too blandly corporate to be exhilarating".