There is nothing fantastic about the situation Warner Bros. finds itself in with the expensive (and valuable) Harry Potter spinoff series, Fantastic Beasts. The third installment—Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore—managed just $3.9 million internationally this weekend, taking its worldwide haul to $376 million. With the film already playing in the vast majority of its international markets—74; it’ll open in three smaller territories on May 26—it’s going to struggle to cross the $400 million mark worldwide.
Domestically, the film made an estimated $2.9 million this weekend—its fourth—taking its total to $90 million. The jury’s out on whether it’s able to cross the $100 million mark and save some face. However you spin it, it's not a positive story. The Fantastic Beasts franchise has long been a problem area for W.B. and this film’s performance could mean curtains for the struggling series. Its biggest international territory is Japan ($33.4 million) followed by Germany ($28 million). Harry Potter’s home nation, the U.K. has managed only $25.9 million.
Marred by the high-profile sacking (or involuntary removal) of Johnny Depp, a series of public controversies involving both actor Ezra Miller and screenwriter-producer J.K. Rowling, and dwindling fan interest, the third Fantastic Beasts movie, some would say, was doomed to fail.
The studio was also hoping to keep the film’s costs in check, but with a hefty payout for the departing Depp and a budget that ballooned to a reported $200 million because of the pandemic, Fantastic Beasts 3 needed to do way better to be counted as a hit. The first Fantastic Beasts film—2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them—finished with $814 million worldwide. The second—2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald—witnessed a noticeable decline both critically and commercially; it finished with $654 million worldwide.
According to Variety, W.B. was said to be waiting to evaluate the performance of Fantastic Beasts 3 before making any announcements about the franchise’s future. The series was initially supposed to be a trilogy, before it was revealed to be a five-film project.
But with director David Yates having set up another movie—the thriller Pain Hustlers, starring Emily Blunt—it’s anybody’s guess as to what happens with the remaining two Fantastic Beasts films. Yates has directed both previous Fantastic Beasts movies, and the last four films in the Harry Potter series.
An actual abandonment of the remaining two films would be reminiscent of the Divergent franchise, which memorably (for all the wrong reasons) never got a final installment. There’s talk of W.B. contemplating a streaming future for the Wizarding World, but that still doesn’t answer fan concerns about the Fantastic Beasts films. At this point, though, it’s worth wondering if they even care.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is playing in theaters.