Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is expected to earn $65 million from over 3,300 domestic locations for its premiere, though industry estimates show that number could be closer to $75 million. The higher part of that range would be in line with the opening of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the first entry in the Harry Potter spinoff series. That film debuted with $74 million on the same weekend two years ago and went on to generate $234 million in North America and $580 million overseas. The second film carries a slightly bigger budget of $200 million, while the first outing cost $175 million.
Warner Bros., the studio behind the magical movies, expects to see a similar boost from the international box office. The sequel could make as much as $250 million this weekend when including foreign markets, where it will launch day and date in nearly 48 territories.
The Crimes of Grindelwald is the second entry in what Warner Bros. intends to be a five-film franchise and is part of the studio’s ongoing effort to wring more riches from the wizarding world popularized by author J.K. Rowling. There were skeptics about how the prequel series would compare to “Harry Potter,” both in box office revenues and audience reception. “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” garnered largely positive reviews and became the first movie in the greater Hogwarts universe to win an Oscar.
In Crimes of Grindelwald, Eddie Redmayne returns as magizoologist Newt Scamander. While the prequel series takes place in the 1920s and comes before the adventures of everyone’s favorite boy wizard, this installment begins to meld the wizarding world we know from the “Harry Potter” films. Jude Law joins the cast as Albus Dumbledore in the days before he was the beloved headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In this film, he teams up with Scamander to take down Grindelwald. The cast also includes Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Zoe Kravitz, and Dan Fogler. Rowling wrote the screenplay and David Yates, who helmed several Harry Potter movies, returned to direct.
