Fantastic Beasts 2 Debuts With $62

Variety.com: “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” enchanted moviegoers with a debut of $62 million.

While that’s slightly lower than the domestic start of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the first installment in Warner Bros.’ “Harry Potter” spinoff series, it was easily enough to dominate the weekend box office.

Warner Bros., the studio behind the wizarding series, sees “Fantastic Beasts” becoming a stronger international play, where the follow-up has already earned $191 million for a global opening of $253 million. Stateside, “Crimes of Grindelwald” has battled the worst reviews yet for a “Harry Potter” entry. It currently holds a bleak 40% on Rotten Tomatoes and a B+ Cinemascore. The studio is counting on global box office revenues to make up for a potentially lackluster domestic performance and carry the film, which cost $200 million to produce.

“The Crimes of Grindelwald” is the second entry in what Warner Bros. intends to be a five-film franchise and is part of the studio’s ongoing effort to wring more riches from the wizarding world popularized by author J.K. Rowling. Frequent “Harry Potter” collaborator David Yates returned to direct the sequel, which stars Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Johnny Depp, Ezra Miller, and Zoe Kravitz. It sparked controversy when Depp was cast as the infamous dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. However, it didn’t seem to taint enthusiasm among Potterheads. Much like the first film in the prequel series, the audience for “Crimes of Grindelwald” skewed older with 69% of moviegoers over the age of 25.

Warner Bros.’ president of worldwide distribution Ron Sanders anticipates seeing a stronger showing from family crowds during Thanksgiving.

“We’re extremely pleased with the opening weekend and think it will play well over the holidays,” Sander said. “Clearly the brilliance of what [Rowling] created is something fans continue to embrace.”