Harry Potter fans let nostalgia guide the way as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them had a solid number one debut with an estimated $75 million. The film scored a solid “A” opening day CinemaScore and it should play well over the next few weeks since it’s the only “big” film out right now until Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits screens in December. The film has also banked $143.3 million overseas which bodes well against its $180 million budget.
The rest of the top five is pretty much business as usual with Doctor Strange ($17.67 million) taking second and Trolls ($17.5 million) taking third. That’s a 59% drop for Doctor Strange and a 50% drop for Trolls but that’s to be expected with Fantastic Beasts opening over the weekend.
The other newcomers didn’t gain much traction over the weekend with The Edge of Seventeen opening to $4.8 million for a seventh place finish. The film was tracking in the $8-10 million range and received rave reviews from critics (95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) but it wasn’t enough to generate much interest. Also not generating a solid opening is Bleed for This and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Bleed for This grossed a mere $2.35 million to finish in eighth while Billy Lynn’s grossed $930,000 to finish in fourteenth place. Both films suffered from mixed to bad reviews.
Check out the full top ten list below:
November 18-20
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – $75 million
- Doctor Strange – $17.67 million
- Trolls – $17.5 million
- Arrival – $11.8 million
- Almost Christmas – $7 million
- Hacksaw Ridge– $6.7 million
- The Edge of Seventeen– $4.8 million
- Bleed for This – $2.35 million
- The Accountant– $2.1 million
- Shut In– $1.6 million
