Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore has had an underwhelming opening weekend at the box office. The movie opened in many countries on April 7/8 but the weeklong headstart wasn’t enough to boost the global box office totals in time for the US’ opening this past weekend. Fantastic Beasts 3 had the worst US opening of any movie in the Wizarding World franchise at just $43 million. It continues the trend of each successive Fantastic Beasts movie being the worst domestic opening in the franchise. Worldwide, the picture isn’t much better for the franchise with the current worldwide total sitting at just $193 million. That’s 38% lower than the widely panned second movie, Crimes of Grindelwald.
Although the pandemic is likely to blame for a portion of the poor performance it doesn’t tell the whole story. Crimes of Grindelwald suffered a 20% total worldwide box office decline from the first movie. After the first weekend, Fantastic Beasts 3 currently sits at 30% lower than the second movie did after its first opening weekend in the US. Even if COVID is to blame for some of the poor performance, the numbers suggest the movies are trending downwards on their own.
Last week, it was reported that the future of the franchise hangs in the balance. The Fantastic Beasts franchise was previously announced as a five-film affair. However, the controversies surrounding the movies combined with the falling box office numbers have reportedly left Warner Bros. debating whether it is worth the effort to finish the planned pentalogy. The future of the franchise reportedly depends on the box office performance of Secrets of Dumbledore. If that is the case then the series is hanging in the balance after the poor opening weekend’s performance. Perhaps long legs can save Fantastic Beasts 3 at the box office due to a lack of pandemic releases creating competition.
