Weekend Wrap-Up: Fantastic Beast Can’t Lift Box Office

November 22, 2016

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

As expected, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them dominated the box office earning nearly as much as the rest of the films combined. However, it was unexpectedly weak earning just $74.40 million. In fact, every film we talked about on Thursday’s predictions underperformed and the overall box office was down to $158 million. Granted, “down” in this case is only off by 0.1%, but considering we were expecting significant growth, even a little drop is distressing. Worse still, the box office is off by 8.9% from this weekend last year. Again, we were expecting growth in the year-over-year comparison, so a drop this big really hurts. Year-to-date, 2016 has pulled in $9.49 billion, which is 5.9% or $540 million better than last year’s pace. That said, I wouldn’t panic, as Moana should help the box office bounce back this weekend.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opened in first place with $74.40 million over the weekend. This is a huge sum of money, even for a movie that cost $180 million to make. However, this is the worst Friday through Sunday opening for a Harry Potter film and this includes the ones that opened on Wednesday. The reviews remain in the overwhelmingly positive level and it earned an A from CinemaScore, so that should help its legs going forward. There are still two points of concern. Firstly, the film is aimed at adults more than children, but it drew in a load of families. This means the direct competition could hurt it at the box office this week. Secondly, unless the film is a monster hit internationally, it won’t live up to its predecessors at the box office. It will be profitable. It just won’t be a license to print money.

Doctor Strange was pushed into second place with $17.76 million over the weekend for a total of $181.63 million after three weeks of release. It has already made more domestically than it cost to make, while it will hit $200 million this weekend, thanks in part to Thanksgiving. Unless the film cost more to advertise than to make, which is nearly impossible, it has already made enough worldwide to break even.

Trolls fell much faster than anticipated, which indicated it shared a larger audience with Fantastic Beasts than expected. It still earned $17.45 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $116.16 million and will break even before the lucrative home market. I’m sure the studio is already looking at turning it into a franchise.

Arrival was next with $12.14 million over the weekend for a ten-day total of $43.71 million. The film cost $47 million to make and if can do as well internationally, it will break even early during its home market run.

Almost Christmas was a surprise entrant in the top five earning $7.26 million for a two-week total of $25.64 million. Thanksgiving should help it at the box office this week, so it should do well enough to break even early in its home market run.

The rest of the new releases all bombed, to one degree or another. The Edge of Seventeen only managed seventh place with $4.75 million, despite earning 95% positive reviews. It deserves to earn Awards Season buzz, but this start will practically kill its chances. After all, you can’t vote for a film you haven’t seen. Hopefully it will at least find an audience on the home market.

Bleed for This missed the Mendoza Line with just $2.37 million in 1,549 theaters. The film deserved better, but it will disappear from theaters as soon as theater owners are contractually allowed to drop it.

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk absolutely bombed with just $901,000 over the weekend and $1.06 million including its limited release run. It is doing much better internationally, but its chances of breaking even are still very slim.

Looking in on the sophomore class, we find the only such film not in the top five sitting in 10th place. Shut In managed $1.61 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $6.04 million. It fell 56% and frankly, it should be happy it dropped by only that much, since it still has zero positive reviews.

- Weekend Box Office

- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Comparisons
- The Edge of Seventeen Comparisons
- Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk Comparisons
- Bleed for This Comparisons

Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, Trolls, Moana, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Doctor Strange, Shut In, The Edge of Seventeen, Arrival, Bleed for This, Almost Christmas, Harry Potter