‘Fantastic Beasts Dumbledore’ Eyes Meek $40 million- $45 million Prologue – The Hollywood Reporter
Warner Bros. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is sure to have a huge domestic box office of $40-$45 million after grossing $20.1 million on Friday.
Opening day numbers include $6 million in Thursday’s previews.
The $200 million film – marking the third installment in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter spin-off series – is doing well compared to its predecessors. Franchising has become more important than ever for studios in Hollywood, but it remains to be seen whether this particular series can continue to grow.
Directed by David Yates, Dumbledore’s Secret stars Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Mads Mikkelsen, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, William Nadylam, Callum Turner, Jessica Williams and Victoria Yeates.
In 2016, Amazing Beasts and Where to Find Them launch reached $74.4 million domestically. The second part, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwaldless than that, or $62.2 million. DumbledoreThursday’s preview earnings aren’t too far off from the first two.
The Magical Creatures the series has never been in the way Harry Potter did. Complicating matters, there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes drama and production delays due to COVID-19.
Ezra Miller, who plays Credence Barebone in all three films, made headlines after appearing to suffocate a fan outside a club and most recently, allegedly harassing people at a bar in Hawaii and broke into a couple’s hotel room. Then there’s the series’ predecessor, Rowling, who has spent the past two years voicing her anti-transgender views.
And Johnny Depp, who played the role Magical Creatures villain Gellert Grindelwald in season two, left Dumbledore’s Secret when he was embroiled in allegations of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, Amber Heard. (Depp was replaced by Mads Mikkelsen.)
Abroad, Fantastic Beasts 3 has raised over $60 million to date from select markets where it launched early.
Other new offerings this weekend include Sony’s religious theme Father Stu, tells the true story of a former box office actor and two bit becoming a priest. Mark Wahlberg, Mel Gibson and star Jacki Weaver. Wahlberg is also one of the film’s producers and sponsors.
Father Stu opened midweek to take advantage of kids on spring break, and grossed $1.6 million on Wednesday and $775,000 on Thursday for a total of $2.3 million in two days.
On Friday, the film made $1.6 million for its five-day start with just $7 million.
The updated number will be released on Sunday morning.
April 16, 8:45 am. Updated with number six.
