The Wizarding World continues expanding with Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, which has the worst box office performance in Harry Potter history, and there are different contributing factors. The Harry Potter novels and movies introduced the audience to the Wizarding World, and while the story of “The Boy Who Lived” came to an end in 2012 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, there are more stories to tell from this world, and so the Fantastic Beasts movie series began.
Inspired by the 2001 guidebook of the same name, written in-universe by magizoologist Newt Scamander, the Fantastic Beasts movie series began in 2016 with Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, which followed Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as he enlisted Muggle Jacob’s (Dan Fogler) help to round up some escaped magical creatures while a strange dark force terrorized New York City as Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) rises to power. However, the movies took a turn with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and shifted their focus from Scamander and his magical creatures to the conflict and backstory of a young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Grindelwald.
After a big revelation at the end of Fantastic Beasts 2 about Credence Barebone’s (Ezra Miller) family, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore continues exploring the story of the Dumbledore family along with Grindelwald’s (now played by Mads Mikkelsen) plans of Wizarding supremacy and domination. Although the trailers for Fantastic Beasts 3 promised action and drama, especially through the long-awaited duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, the movie has the lowest box office in the Harry Potter franchise, and there are various contributing factors.
Fantastic Beasts 3’s Opening Box Office Is The Worst Of Any Harry Potter Movie
Like many other movies in the last two years, Fantastic Beasts 3 is struggling in a pandemic world where box office numbers fluctuate and the success of movies has to be measured differently, but even taking that into account, Fantastic Beasts 3 isn’t doing well at the box office. Fantastic Beasts 3 made $43 million during its opening weekend, which puts it at the top of the charts (sending another big release, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, to the #2 spot) and makes it one of the best openings of the year so far, but it’s still a franchise low for the Wizarding World.
The highest-grossing movie in the Harry Potter franchise is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, with a total of $1,342,359,942, followed by Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. From the Fantastic Beasts branch, the highest-grossing movie is the first one, with $814,044,001, which puts it in eighth place overall, right below Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ($879,793,867) and above Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ($797,491,273). Right above Fantastic Beasts 3 is The Crimes of Grindelwald, with $654,855,901, and at the time of writing, Secrets of Dumbledore has a worldwide gross of $193,400,000. It’s unlikely Fantastic Beasts 3 will move up in the coming weeks, more so as all movies in this branch of the Wizarding World have underperformed when compared to most of the Harry Potter saga, and there are also other factors that aren’t playing in Fantastic Beasts 3’s favor.
Why Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore’s Box Office Is So Bad
Unfortunately, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore has many things playing against it, and while the main factor to blame is the pandemic and how this has affected the film industry, there’s a lot more behind the scenes and in terms of the current narrative of the Fantastic Beasts series. First off, the twist of Credence’s family background in Fantastic Beasts 2 wasn’t well-received by viewers, and the constant retcons to the Wizarding World and the history the audience knew thanks to the Harry Potter franchise, along with Fantastic Beasts 2 focusing more on Dumbledore and Grindelwald rather than Newt and his adventures, led viewers to lose interest in the Fantastic Beasts movie series.
The Fantastic Beasts series has also been plagued with behind-the-scenes controversy, beginning with Johnny Depp’s casting as Grindelwald. Depp has been involved in a lot of controversy due to his very public divorce from Amber Heard and the many legal battles they have been involved in, which have resulted in Depp losing many roles and the audience taking sides, though now there’s a lot of support for him on social media. Still, Warner Bros. decided to recast Gellert Grindelwald and bring Mads Mikkelsen onboard instead, and while Mikkelsen’s performance has been praised, the controversy around Depp’s firing has drawn viewers away. Ezra Miller has also been in trouble with the law since Fantastic Beasts came out, starting with a video of them choking a fan and more recently with their arrest in Hawaii due to disorderly conduct and harassment.
However, the biggest shadow over not only the Fantastic Beasts series but the Wizarding World in general is J.K. Rowling’s comments about trans people. Rowling has made various anti-trans comments on social media, leading actors from both Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter to share their support to the trans community, with some of them, like Evanna Lynch, defending Rowling but not her anti-trans views. Warner Bros. released a disappointing statement regarding this issue and a lengthy post by Rowling herself only made it all worse. In addition to that, the first reviews for Fantastic Beasts 3 have been mixed, with many critics calling it an improvement over its predecessors and praising Mikkelsen’s performance as Grindelwald, but its underdeveloped characters, too much focus on the Wizarding elections and less fantastic beasts, too many subplots, and an uneven tone aren’t exactly helping the franchise regain the attention and interest of the audience.
Does Secrets Of Dumbledore’s Box Office Mean Fantastic Beasts 4 Won’t Happen?
The Fantastic Beasts branch of the Wizarding World franchise was initially believed to be a trilogy, but in 2016, Rowling announced plans to make it a saga with five movies, covering events from Wizarding history that happened between 1926 and 1945, obviously focusing on the Global Wizarding War led by Grindewald. However, as seen above, the Fantastic Beasts movies haven’t been the success Warner Bros. was expecting, and with all the controversy going on behind the scenes and the stories not being compelling enough to keep the audience’s interest, the future of the saga is a mystery. Days before the release of Fantastic Beasts 3 it was reported (via Variety) that the future of the final two installments will depend on the critical and commercial performance of Secrets of Dumbledore – and if it doesn’t take off after its opening weekend, Fantastic Beasts 4 and 5 won’t happen.
The Fantastic Beasts series has been tainted by controversy, uneven plots, underdeveloped characters, and various retcons to Harry Potter canon that have ultimately made the audience lose all interest in it, but if this side of the Wizarding World is to end with Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, at least the audience got to see some happy endings and a taste of the legendary duel between two of the greatest wizards in history: Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald.
