Fantastic Beasts casts a box office spell
Eddie Redmayne stars in the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald crawled, slithered and flew its way to the top of the weekend box office, with a $62.2-million (U.S.) opening in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The latest offering from the Harry Potter multiverse fell short of the opening of the first film in the Warner Bros. series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which debuted with $74 million in a similar November release in 2016 and went on to earn $234 million in the U.S. and Canada. But Fantastic Beasts had a hearty worldwide weekend gross of $253 million, according to the studio’s estimates.
Last week’s top film, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, was second with $38.1 million, bringing its domestic tally to $126 million for Universal Pictures after two weekends. Bohemian Rhapsody, 20th Century Fox’s Freddie Mercury biopic, is still rocking, taking third place with $15.7 million for a total of $127 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to Comscore: 1. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, $62.2 million 2. Dr Seuss’ The Grinch, $38.1 million 3. Bohemian Rhapsody, $15.7 million 4. Instant Family, $14.7 million 5. Widows, $12.3 million 6. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, $4.7 million 7. A Star Is Born, $4.3 million 8. Overlord, $3.8 million 9. The Girl in the Spider’s Web, $2.5 million 10. Burn The Stage: The Movie, $2.3 million