Fantastic Beasts 2 has lowest opening of any Harry Potter movie in the US

Could the Fantastic Beasts franchise already be running into trouble?

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the second Fantastic Beasts movie, recorded the lowest ever opening for a movie in the Harry Potter series ever in the US over the weekend.

It managed to bring in $62.9 million (around £49 million), and while that sounds like a substantial chunk of change, it’s easily the smallest haul in the Wizarding World.

For context, the first movie made $74.4 million in its first weekend (nearly £58 million), while the very first Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, made over $90 million in 2001.

Luckily, the movie has done better overseas, making $253 million in all so far, already surpassing its production costs.

Its $191 million haul abroad is also among the strongest in the franchises’ history, but the shortfall in the US may still be a little cause for concern.

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, went on to score a very respectable $814 million in all, which meant that the planned further films in the series – another three are in the offing – were green-lit.

But reviews have also been mixed for this latest instalment, which finds Eddie Redmayne reprising his role as magizoologist Newt Scamander and Johnny Depp as dark wizard Gelert Grindelwald.

It currently boasts a pretty lowly 40 percent ‘fresh’ rating on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s out now across the UK.

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