"Harry Potter" Spin-off "Fantastic Beasts" Tops Box Office Charts

[JamesG]

Fantastic Beasts Tops Weekend with $75M While Fellow New Releases Struggle
by Brad Brevet
November 20, 2016


Topping the weekend box office, WB's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them delivered an estimated $75 million, matching industry expectations. 18% of the opening weekend audience was under the age of 18 while 55% was over the age of 35, which suggests previous Harry Potter fans showed up, but the new generation wasn't quite as inspired.

As have several Harry Potter films before it, Beasts scored an "A" CinemaScore from opening day audiences. That being said, while this is the lowest opening for any film in J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World series of films, Beasts' opening is on par with the likes of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ($77.1m) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($77.8m), which went on to gross $292 million and $301 million respectively.

Should Fantastic Beasts follow suit a domestic run anywhere from $284-290 million would be in the offing, though a safe expectation right now would seem to be around $275-280 million.







Disney and Marvel's Doctor Strange currently holds the edge with an estimated weekend of $17.67 million, a 59% drop compared to last weekend.

Just behind Strange is Fox's Trolls with an estimated $17.5 million weekend, a 50% drop.







Fourth place on the domestic chart belongs to Paramount's Arrival with an estimated $11.8 million, a 51% second weekend drop as its domestic cume now stands at $43.3 million.

Rounding out the top five is Universal's Almost Christmas, dropping 53.5% for an estimated $7 million second weekend, bringing its domestic cume to $25.4 million.

The best hold of the weekend inside the top ten goes to Hacksaw Ridge, which continues to perform well, dropping just 36.5% for an estimated $6.75 million. The film's domestic cume now stands at $42.8 million as it's now looking at a $60+ million domestic run.







In seventh is where we find STX's The Edge of Seventeen, which fell well below its $8-10 million three-day opening expectations, delivering an estimated $4.8 million from 1,945 theaters ($2,480 PTA).

The film did receive an "A-" CinemaScore from opening day audiences to go along with a strong 95% critical rating on RottenTomatoes, it simply just wasn't able to attract enough moviegoers. The opening weekend audience demographics showed the film played 70% female and 75% was between the ages of 17-34 years of age.







Next is Open Road's Bleed for This, which could only muster $2.35 million for the weekend from 1,549 theaters ($1,522 PTA). Bleed for This also received an "A-" CinemaScore.

Rounding out the top ten was Ben Affleck's The Accountant with an estimated $2.1 million as its cume has now topped $80 million and stands at $81.2 million.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4243&p=.htm









November 18-20, 2016 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them $75,000,000
2. Doctor Strange $17,676,000 / $181,542,877
3. Trolls $17,500,000 / $116,214,533
4. Arrival $11,800,000 / $43,370,799
5. Almost Christmas $7,040,000 / $25,420,740
6. Hacksaw Ridge $6,750,000 / $42,854,292
7. The Edge of Seventeen $4,825,000
8. Bleed for This $2,357,946
9. The Accountant $2,115,000 / $81,252,018
10. Shut In $1,600,000 / $6,036,645