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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ended its opening weekend atop the domestic box office, dethroning Sonic the Hedgehog 2 from the coveted spot. While successful, the third installment from the Fantastic Beasts franchise finished with a disappointing $43 million total, which is the lowest opening performance for a Wizarding World project.
The third installment looked to bounce back from the dismal outing of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, which received a 36% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a 54% rating from audiences. Despite the unwelcome reception, the film generated $62 million at the domestic box office, but it was evident that some things needed to shift for the prequel franchise to find its desired footing. Controversy, however, altered the project's path with Johnny Depp being removed from his role and replaced by Mads Mikkelsen to embody the villainous Grindelwald. COVID delays and the antics of franchise staple Ezra Miller haven't helped the struggling franchise, but optimism lingered that fans would return for the magic.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore carried a $200 million production budget, which Warner Bros. exacerbated due to delays and safety measures that needed to be put in place to continue filming. It doesn't appear that the film will be able to recoup the massive figure any time soon domestically based on the current performance numbers. The film opened Friday and ended the night with an accumulated $20 million total. Saturday saw a dip in performance, which ended with a $13.9 million generated total for the film. Sunday was another low-performing day, seeing the film take home $9.1 million in box office revenue. Combined, the total came out to $43 million domestically, far below any film in the Wizarding World.
However, the film's reception was improved, at least from the audience's standpoint. Critics continued to see issues present within the franchise's narrative, resulting in the 48% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. On the other hand, audiences appear to have enjoyed the changes, evident in the 85% rating given to the film. It's clear that improvements have helped to appease some hesitations surrounding the prequel franchise, but the damage inflicted by The Crimes of Grindelwald may have been too much to overcome. Renewed life appears to be returning to theaters, which should have been a substantial benefit for the film, but it doesn't seem that fans are interested in the journey, which doesn't bode well for the franchise's future.
The initial plan from Warner Bros. was to produce five films within the prequel universe, but things haven't fully mapped out the way the studio envisioned. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them started things well for the studio with a $74 million opening in 2016, but revenue has dipped, resulting in the franchise's lowest outing. Warner Bros. indicated the performance of the third installment would play a role in determining the future of the prequel. As a result, the studio has not given the go-ahead for other films to surface in the franchise, waiting to see how things shape out for the newest adventure. While the reception has improved, numbers are lower than ever, which is something the studio won't look to replicate in the future.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ended its second weekend within theaters behind the Fantastic Beasts narrative, earning $30 million to bring its domestic total to $119.6 million. The iconic Sega character was within striking distance of maintaining its top spot at the box office, which is yet another unsettling realization for the Fantastic Beasts franchise. It's unclear what Warner Bros. will decide to do moving forward, but things need to improve if they hope to recapture the magic of the Wizarding World.
Source: Deadline