diff --git a/django/core/management/templates.py b/django/core/management/templates.py
index d34a0deb7e..f522097b8c 100644
--- a/django/core/management/templates.py
+++ b/django/core/management/templates.py
@@ -8,8 +8,6 @@ import shutil
 import stat
 import sys
 import tempfile
-import codecs
-
 try:
     from urllib.request import urlretrieve
 except ImportError:     # Python 2
@@ -156,12 +154,14 @@ class TemplateCommand(BaseCommand):
 
                 # Only render the Python files, as we don't want to
                 # accidentally render Django templates files
-                with codecs.open(old_path, 'r', 'utf-8') as template_file:
+                with open(old_path, 'rb') as template_file:
                     content = template_file.read()
                 if filename.endswith(extensions) or filename in extra_files:
+                    content = content.decode('utf-8')
                     template = Template(content)
                     content = template.render(context)
-                with codecs.open(new_path, 'w', 'utf-8') as new_file:
+                    content = content.encode('utf-8')
+                with open(new_path, 'wb') as new_file:
                     new_file.write(content)
 
                 if self.verbosity >= 2:
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/custom_templates/project_template/ticket-19397-binary-file.ico b/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/custom_templates/project_template/ticket-19397-binary-file.ico
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1db49645b5
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/regressiontests/admin_scripts/custom_templates/project_template/ticket-19397-binary-file.ico differ