NOTE: All box office figures are as of December 3, 2018
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Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ultimately turned a profit at the box office, but it’s essentially the first real misstep in the lucrative Wizarding World franchise. Warner Bros. stumbled across a goldmine when they acquired the film rights to J.K. Rowling’s ultra-popular Harry Potter novels and brought the magical universe to the big screen. It proved to be a very wise investment, as the eight movies collectively earned $7.7 billion at the worldwide box office (an average of $965.4 million a pop) and were all well-received by critics. Sadly (for fans and studio executives), Harry’s story came to an end with 2011’s The Deathly Hallows – Part 2.
However, the property made its return five years later with the first Fantastic Beasts installment. A spinoff/prequel centering on the adventures of Newt Scamander, the film proved to be another hit for the studio. Though reviews weren’t as positively glowing as the mainline Potter movies, it still generated solid word-of-mouth and brought in $814 million worldwide. This all but ensured Rowling’s plan to craft a five-part narrative would unfold, and The Crimes of Grindelwald hit theaters last month. Unfortunately, the results were far from what WB was hoping for.
Crimes of Grindelwald Couldn’t Overcome Negative Buzz
![Fantastic Beasts 2 Is Harry Potter’s First Box Office Misfire](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Johnny-Depp-as-Grindelwald-in-Fantastic-Beasts-2.jpg)
Prospects for The Crimes of Grindelwald didn’t look great from the outset. In addition to the lukewarm reception of its predecessor, the sequel was plagued by controversy in the months leading up to its release. Complaints against the casting of Johnny Depp (and all the personal baggage that comes with him) as the main villain have been well-documented, and die-hard Harry Potter fans took issue with several notable changes to the lore revealed in marketing. Notable examples include Nagini’s troubling backstory, the Elder Wand, and Professor McGonagall’s inclusion in the Hogwarts scenes. There were still circles of the fan base excited to see Crimes of Grindelwald, but the odds were stacked against it.
Related: Read Screen Rant’s The Crimes of Grindelwald Review
Movies have been able to overcome negative buzz before, but the second Fantastic Beasts was not one of them. When the professional reviews started to roll in, Crimes of Grindelwald became the franchise’s first installment to be Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes. To illustrate just how much of a step down in quality it is, its nine predecessors are all Certified Fresh. Again, some audience members found enjoyment in another journey to the Wizarding World, but the general consensus is that Crimes of Grindelwald was a muddled, confusing mess of a film preoccupied more with setting up its upcoming sequels than telling a captivating story that stands on its own merits. Some people feel Rowling is following the path to becoming the next George Lucas, while others place the blame on director David Yates’ approach. Regardless of whose fault it primarily is, the Fantastic Beasts films clearly aren’t resonating as much as Harry Potter.
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This can be reflected in The Crimes of Grindelwald’s box office performance. Though it easily won its opening weekend, its haul wasn’t anything to write home about. Earning just $62.1 million domestically in its first three days, The Crimes of Grindelwald scored the lowest debut in the series by more than $12 million. That figure is far below other 2018 tentpoles, such as Venom (which broke October records with $80.2 million despite bad reviews) and even infamous flop Solo: A Star Wars Story ($84.4 million). Interest in Grindelwald was very low, and it was never able to rebound. Its legs proved to be weak; as of this writing, it’s made $135.3 million Stateside. It hasn’t been able to keep pace with the original Fantastic Beasts, which earned $184.3 million at the same point in its run (18 days) and ended with $234 million domestically. With the big December releases like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Mary Poppins Returns on the horizon, that’s a total Crimes of Grindelwald won’t match or surpass.
Of course, the domestic box office only tells half the story. In recent years, international markets have become of very high importance, and often can help push a middling movie across the profitability line. With The Crimes of Grindelwald failing to leave much of an impression in the United States, it needed a strong showing overseas in order to become the hit the studio desired. On that front, it was mostly successful, yet the numbers still leave something to be desired – especially when compared to the other entries in the franchise.
Page 2: Crimes of Grindelwald Is The Lowest-Grossing Harry Potter Film
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Crimes of Grindelwald’s Worldwide Box Office Is Poor
Budgeted for $200 million, The Crimes of Grindelwald has made its money back and turned a profit for WB. Going by the general rule of thumb, it had to gross $400 million globally to break even, and its current total stands at $522.2 million. Obviously, the film didn’t bomb, but these figures are hardly great. Based solely on the box office receipts, Crimes of Grindelwald is just $122.2 million in the black, which (unadjusted for inflation), wouldn’t be enough money to produce another Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (production budget: $125 million). Of course, Grindelwald will pad its cumulative gross before it bows out of theaters, but it’s already earned a majority of its money.
The film opened in several markets during the same week in mid-November, with a Japanese premiere happening on November 23. There are no other territories awaiting its arrival, so in all likelihood, the final tally won’t be much higher than what it’s already made. Perhaps it makes in excess of $600 million worldwide when it’s all said and done, but it’s going to have to be content remaining in the basement on the all-time franchise charts. There’s a considerable gap of nearly $275 million between Crimes of Grindelwald and the ninth-place film, The Prisoner of Azkaban ($796.7 million). Grindelwald will not finish anywhere near the original Fantastic Beasts’ worldwide haul of $814 million, which has to be somewhat concerning for the higher-ups.
Related: All The Fantastic Beasts 3 Clues In The Crimes of Grindelwald
![Fantastic Beasts 2 Jude Law as Dumbledore](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Fantastic-Beasts-2-Jude-Law-as-Dumbledore.jpg)
A saving grace for WB, as mentioned earlier, is that The Crimes of Grindelwald is not an out-and-out disaster. It’s currently the fifteenth-highest grossing movie of the year worldwide and will surely move a few spots up that list over the next couple of weeks. But considering the property’s pedigree and the sequel’s integration of classic Potter elements like returning legacy characters and Hogwarts, it’d be understandable if people expected a little more. After all, this is a franchise that averaged $948.6 million per installment before Crimes of Grindelwald sunk that mean with its underwhelming total. The original Fantastic Beasts made a little bit more than Azkaban, so it’s a little troubling Grindelwald won’t follow suit in that regard. Most films would kill for $522 million worldwide, but this is an era where major tentpoles earn that without trying.
This isn’t a catastrophic franchise-altering turn of events a la Solo or Justice League, but the dip in revenue should be enough to give WB some pause as they plot the course for Fantastic Beasts 3. It’s one thing for a sequel to make less than its predecessor (particularly one that revived a long-dormant series), but the cumulative numbers need to be in the same ballpark in order to instill confidence that the plan is working. There’s definitely something off with the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and the onus is on the filmmakers to figure out what that is. Looking ahead, they need to identify the core problems and find the proper resolutions. For all their faults, the Beasts films have their bright spots, and a little bit of retooling should be all it takes to get it back on track.
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Fortunately, Rowling and company have plenty of time to go back to the drawing board and figure out a new strategy. The third Fantastic Beasts is allegedly aiming to begin production at some point in 2019 to meet its intended 2020 release date. Though Rowling was penning the script over the summer, there’s no rush to finalize the screenplay, meaning she can make any necessary revisions and hopefully recapture her old sense of magic. Some might argue it’ll be too little too late to salvage Fantastic Beasts, but as long as The Crimes of Grindelwald remains the lone sore spot in the lineup, things will turn out fine.