Fantastic Beasts Debut Set to Make a Lot, But Less Than Any Harry Potter Movie
The Harry Potter spinoff won't stack up to the series its based on in its opening weekend.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is projected to open to $75 million in its box office weekend, Variety reports. That's less than any Harry Potter movie has made in its debut, but it's not far off from The Order of the Phoenix's and Half-Blood Prince's $77 million opening weekends.
For further comparison, the last Harry Potter movie, Deathly Hallows: Part 2, made $169 million in its debut weekend. That puts quite a bit of space between it and Fantastic Beasts' projections, though it's worth noting that the second Deathly Hallows finished the Harry Potter story and was likely to see a bigger audience because of that.
When comparing Fantastic Beasts to movies that came out this year, its projections place it ahead of movies like Jason Bourne, Star Trek Beyond, and X-Men Apocalypse, among others, according to Box Office Mojo. However, its projection trails behind eight movies, including Finding Dory, Deadpool, and Captain America: Civil War. You can see some tables comparing US opening weekend earnings with information gathered from Box Office Mojo at the bottom of this article.
While Fantastic Beasts isn't on track to stack up against other blockbuster movies, Warner Bros. has announced that the spinoff series will consist of five films. It's possible that future sequels will earn higher-earning opening weekends, as interest for the series goes up.
Fantastic Beasts stars Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything), Colin Farrell (In Bruges), Katherine Waterston (Steve Jobs), Zoe Kravitz (Mad Max: Fury Road), Ron Perlman (Hellboy), and Ezra Miller (Justice League). It's helmed by Harry Potter film veteran David Yates (Deathly Hallows: Part 2), with author J.K. Rowling on the script.
The Harry Potter spinoff opens in theaters on November 18.
Harry Potter Series
| Movie | US Opening Weekend Earnings | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deathly Hallows: Part 2 | $169.1 million |
| 2 | Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | $125 million |
| 3 | Goblet of Fire | $102.6 million |
| 4 | Prisoner of Azkaban | $93.6 million |
| 5 | Sorcerer's Stone | $90.2 million |
| 6 | Chamber of Secrets | $88.3 million |
| 7 | Half-Blood Prince | $77.8 million |
| 8 | Order of the Phoenix | $77.1 million |
| 9 | Fantastic Beasts | $75 million (projection) |
2016 Movies
| Movie | US Opening Weekend Earnings | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Captain America: Civil War | $179.1 million |
| 2 | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | $166 million |
| 3 | Finding Dory | $135 million |
| 4 | Suicide Squad | $133.6 million |
| 5 | Deadpool | $132.4 million |
| 6 | The Secret Life of Pets | $104.3 million |
| 7 | The Jungle Book | $103.2 million |
| 8 | Zootopia | $75 million |
| 9 | Fantastic Beasts | $75 million (projection) |
| 10 | X-Men: Apocalypse | $65.7 million |
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