It’s a case of diminishing returns at the box office for the Fantastic Beasts franchise. The third installment—Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore—is poised to top the domestic box office in its debut weekend, but a three-day projection of $44.5 million will make for the lowest opening for the Harry Potter spinoff series. Secrets of Dumbledore made $6 million in Thursday previews, and $20.1 million on Friday.
By comparison, the first film in the franchise—2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them—made $74 million in its opening weekend. It finished with over $800 million worldwide. The sequel, 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald—debuted with $62 million and tapped out with a little over $650 million worldwide.
Warner Bros was forced to reconsider future plans for the series for a variety of reasons, including a visible disinterest among fans, and behind-the-scenes issues pertaining to stars Johnny Depp and Ezra Miller, and series creator and screenwriter J.K. Rowling. The third film’s budget ballooned because of the pandemic, further adding to W.B.’s concerns. The studio will reportedly evaluate the performance of the third film before deciding on the planned fourth and fifth films.
Secrets of Dumbledore will have to rely on foreign box office to be counted as a success. By the end of the weekend, it is expected to come within touching distance of the $200 million mark. It opened in select international markets last weekend.
Falling to second place after a spectacular debut weekend, Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is expected to make $26.5 million, taking its domestic total to over $115 million. The video game sequel continues Paramount’s successful run at the box office this year.
The studio also claimed the number three spot, with the romantic comedy The Lost City. Starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum and Daniel Radcliffe (not to mention Brad Pitt in a much-publicized cameo), the film is expected to make $5.85 million in its fourth weekend, pushing its domestic total to just under $80 million.
After a major expansion, A24’s buzzy title Everything Everywhere All at Once took the number four spot with an estimated $5.1 million. The universally acclaimed film, from director duo Daniels, added nearly 1,000 screens this weekend, and its running domestic total now stands at over $16 million.
Sony’s faith-based Mark Wahlberg-starrer Father Stu rounded out the top five, with an estimated $4.7 million. The film was released on Wednesday, and could touch a running domestic total of $7 million by the end of the weekend. Wahlberg recently co-starred in the hit video game adaptation Uncharted, and has expressed interest in only appearing in faith-based films going forward.
Overall business for the weekend is expected to top $111 million, which is surprisingly better than the same weekend in pre-pandemic 2019. Next weekend will see the release of Nicolas Cage’s action-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and director Robert Eggers’ Viking revenge saga The Northman. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.