Fantastic Beasts topples Sonic 2 to lead North America's holiday box office weekend
The third installment of the series has brought in US$43 million in weekend sales in the US and Canada
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Los Angeles
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the latest spinoff of the Harry Potter movie franchise from Warner Bros, opened as the top film in North American cinemas last weekend, toppling Sonic the Hedgehog 2 after just one week atop the standings.
The third installment of the Fantastic Beasts series, brought in US$43 million in weekend sales in the United States and Canada, industry researcher Comscore said on Sunday (Apr 17).
Boxoffice Pro had forecast US$44.1 million in sales for the extended Easter holiday weekend.
The film follows zoologist Newt Scamander and his battle against a dark wizard.
Sonic 2, which became the highest-grossing kids movie of the pandemic era last weekend, took in US$30 million to place second for theaters and its distributor, Paramount Pictures.
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The quirky sci-fi release Everything Everywhere All at Once brought in US$6.2 million to land in fourth place.
Just over half of movie critics recommended the latest Fantastic Beasts, according to review aggregator site RottenTomatoes.com, topping its predecessor, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
The latest fantasy stars Eddie Redmayne as a wizard who studies magical creatures. Jude Law plays Albus Dumbledore.
Fantastic Beasts is the kind of attention-grabbing, family-friendly films that studios now deem worthy of theatrical releases.
But some outliers have managed to resonate with cinemagoers.
Everything Everywhere All At Once, an indie film with a modest budget, expanded to 2,200 theatres.
Each installment of the Fantastic Beasts franchise has generated less in its opening weekend than the film before it.
In 2016, the original Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them took in more than US$74 million in US and Canadian theatres in its opening weekend, while the 2018's Crimes of Grindelwald generated US$62.1 million, according to Box Office Mojo.
Year-to-date box office sales have quintupled, to about US$1.73 billion, from the year-earlier period, Comscore reported. BLOOMBERG
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