‘Fantastic Beasts’ works its magic
“Grindelwald” good for No. 1 at the box office.
LOS ANGELES – “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 opening, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The latest offering from the Harry Potter universe fell short of the first film in the series, 2016’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” which made its debut with $74 million in a November release and went on to earn $234 million in North America.
But the Harry Potter films have had a broad international reach, and “Fantastic Beasts” had a hearty worldwide weekend gross of $253 million.
“Clearly, it’s a huge phenomenon globally,” says Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros.
Last week’s top film, “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch,” was second with $38.1 million, bringing its domestic tally to $126 million after two weekends.
Freddie Mercury and Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” is still rocking, taking third place with $15.7 million for a total of $127 million.
“Fantastic Beasts,” the second film in the series of Potter prequels written by J.K. Rowling and starring Eddie Redmayne, Johnny Depp and Jude Law, had a budget of $200 million. Its reviews largely were lackluster, with critics saying Rowling’s magical world is wearing thin after 10 films.
Globally, the first nine films have earned $8.5 billion, a total that this one’s worldwide take will inflate.
“This happens a lot with bigger franchise movies,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “For many of these blockbusters, it’s the international component that comes in and saves the day.”
In the USA, the studio is hoping young devotees who are out of school will keep “Fantastic Beasts” in flight through Thanksgiving.
“It’s a big week coming up,” Goldstein says. “Friday is one of the biggest movie days of the year.”
“Fantastic Beasts” will have a major challenger in Disney’s “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” which opens Wednesday, as does “Rocky” spinoff “Creed II.”
In the weekend’s smaller-budget openings, Mark Wahlberg’s adoption comedy “Instant Family” made its debut in fourth with $14.7 million, and heist film “Widows,” starring Viola Davis, finished fifth with $12.3 million.
Overall, the weekend was down 14.5 percent from the same time frame a year earlier, when “Justice League” made for a major pre-Thanksgiving weekend.
Final numbers are expected Monday.
Contributing: Kim Willis