Fantastic Beasts 3 Falls Short of Expectations But Wins Easter Weekend at Box Office

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore had the lowest-grossing premiere of any Harry Potter film but still managed to top the box office.

Warner Bros. Pictures

This weekend’s box office numbers have brought some good news and bad news for Warner Bros. The new sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore opened domestically with a haul of $43 million, enough to put it into the No. 1 spot at the weekend’s box office. As the film cost a hefty $200 million to produce, these numbers are well below what the studio had been anticipating, setting the new record for the lowest-grossing premiere of any film in the Harry Potter franchise.

When factoring in worldwide numbers, Fantastic Beasts 3 is up to $193.4 million, so the film is not a total dud. Even so, a premiere that sold fewer tickets than expected coupled with lukewarm reviews might convince Warner Bros. to pump the brakes on the Fantastic Beasts series. There had been preliminary plans to make at least two more movies, but as this was dependent upon The Secrets of Dumbledore doing well, Fantastic Beasts could end up concluding as a trilogy.

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Reviews that were less than stellar did not help the film at the box office, and it’s possible that many filmgoers boycotting the movie for one reason or another also tarnished its theatrical run. There had been many of J.K. Rowling’s critics who had sworn not to watch the film due to her involvement after she had made controversial comments about the transgender community. Meanwhile, many Johnny Depp fans protested the film when he was asked to resign from his role as Grindelwald.

Related: Fantastic Beasts Series Reportedly on Thin Ice

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Blazes Into Second Place

Paramount 

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 fell by 58% from its opening weekend to pull in $30 million; it had opened with $71 million, almost $30 million more than Fantastic Beasts 3. The Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum adventure The Lost City is still hanging on with its $6.5 million haul. Rounding out the rest of the top five are the new action flick Everything Everywhere All At Once, which has garnered near-perfect ratings at Rotten Tomatoes, followed by Mark Wahlberg’s new film Father Stu.

Morbius and Ambulance, both also movies that performed below studio expectations, follow in the next couple spots. Meanwhile, Spider-Man: No Way Home is still hovering in the top 10, now in the No. 10 spot with another $200K to toss on the pile of profits. The film has managed to pull in more than $1.8 billion worldwide since premiering in December to become one of the highest-grossing movies ever, and the highest earner of the pandemic era. The Batman was not too far behind, and it’s now still collecting more millions as well with another $3.8 million.

You can see more detailed information at The Numbers and you can check out the full top ten list below.

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Jeremy Dick
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Jeremy Dick has been a writer and editor since 2014. He is a self-professed horror expert, pop culture enthusiast, and Bob Saget fanatic.

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