Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore's Box Office Performance Is Very Revealing

For the first time since 2018, theatergoers have been welcomed back to J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World thanks to the release of "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore." The new movie, the third in the "Fantastic Beasts" series, sees Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) attempting to thwart Gellert Grindelwald's (Mads Mikkelsen) plot to deceive the international wizarding community into allowing the villain to take political office. With its 49% score on Rotten Tomatoes, "Fantastic Beasts 3" fared a bit better critically than its predecessor, 2018's "The Crimes of Grindelwald." The new movie introduces a slightly less convoluted plotline and actually provides fans with some resolutions to its overarching storylines that were largely kicked further down the road in the prequel series' second installment. 

Even in an era of movie-going when box office predictions remain hard to read due to the COVID-19 pandemic, "Fantastic Beasts" has much to live up to financially. The eight "Harry Potter" movies were massively successful in a way that the two most recent "Fantastic Beasts" simply were not. Unfortunately, it looks like "The Secrets of Dumbledore" is continuing that trend.

Variety's prediction that "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" would make at least $40 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend proved spot-on: the new movie made $43 million over the weekend, more than any other movie that opened on April 15. It also beat "Sonic The Hedgehog 2" by $15 million in that film's second weekend in theaters (via Box Office Mojo). Unfortunately for Warner Bros., hitting that expected benchmark still is not necessarily a good sign — its opening weekend is now the lowest of any of the 11 films that make up the Wizarding World franchise, according to Box Office Mojo. The new "Fantastic Beasts" film takes that distinct dishonor only from its immediate predecessor, "The Crimes of Grindelwald," which made about $62 million in its opening weekend back in 2018.

Fortunately, for a studio still hoping to make back its investment in another J.K. Rowling-penned adventure, the new film is faring much better overseas (via Variety). "Fantastic Beasts 3" has made around $150 million internationally, accounting for almost 78% of its total gross globally so far. If the film can make it to a profitable number at the box office, it may be largely from the stronger share of revenue coming in from overseas, as well as any benefits it may get from its strategic release date. With still over two weeks to go before Marvel Studios drops "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" into theaters on May 6, "Fantastic Beasts 3" could still fill some seats with blockbuster fans in the meantime.