Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald finally had its long awaited debut this weekend, and while the numbers probably weren't what the franchise had hoped for, they were plenty strong enough to fight off holdovers like Dr. Seuss' The Grinch, as well as buzzy newcomers like Widows and Instant Family. In all, the second round of the Harry Potter spinoff took home an estimated $64,000,000+, which is more than enough to fill up a vault or two at Gringotts.
The first Fantastic Beasts premiered to more than $74,000,000 in its opening weekend and eventually passed more than $500,000,000 in worldwide box office, per Box Office Mojo. Its success was enough for Warner Bros to move forward with the larger franchise. Barring a shocking dropoff, this opening too should be enough for the Wizarding World to barrel ahead. Should that be considered a success? That's hard to say. Clearly, Fantastic Beasts has not had anywhere near the cultural footprint of Harry Potter. There's no way this was the best case scenario for anyone involved. That being said, the fact that the Harry Potter franchise in its current spinoff form is still trucking ahead and easily winning box office weekends while attracting tons of visitors to Universal Studios should not be discounted. Not everything has to set records in order to be successful.
As for the rest of the movies, both The Grinch and Bohemian Rhapsody had pretty strong holds of over fifty percent retention from the prior weekend, and each has now passed more than $125,000,000 in domestic grosses. The Grinch will likely finish its run much further ahead on account of it being one weekend newer and children's movies typically holding on for more total weeks. Still, it's a solid thumbs up for both movies, and it should mean we'll see more from The Grinch down the road and most likely, more music biopics about classic rock bands too. I know you're all itching for something about behind the scenes drama with The Eagles or Fleetwood Mac.
The results weren't nearly as exciting for either The Girl In The Spider's Web or The Nutcracker And The Four Realms. Both films fell out of the top five and seem headed for very frustrating total grosses. So, conversely I probably wouldn't be expecting more from the Girl series or any of the other Nutcracker-related realms.
