Box office predictions for “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” are all over the place as the hotly anticipated “Harry Potter” spinoff movie finally hits theaters this weekend.
Whatever the movie’s opening gross, the numbers are clearly in favor of the film, which was produced for a reported $180 million — especially considering its international opening, expected to bring in more than $100 million across 80 markets.
“Fantastic Beasts” opens in China the following weekend, where “Harry Potter” movies have always performed strongly, and is set to open on more than 4,000 screens domestically, with a glowing 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film will cast a big shadow over the weekend’s other new wide releases, which are still managing to shape up nicely for the most part.
Following up its hit comedy “Bad Moms,” STX’s coming-of-age dramedy “The Edge of Seventeen” should open to roughly $10 million.
Marking the directorial debut of Kelly Fremon Craig, the film has critics comparing it to John Hughes classics “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles,” netting it a 90 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ang Lee’s high-tech film, shot at 120 frames per second, hasn’t gotten great reviews, currently sitting at 41 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Returning to “Fantastic Beasts,” given its new story and timeline within J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world, the title has been something of a box office question mark — especially in predicting how it will stack up against the “Harry Potter” movies.
Set in the same universe as “Harry Potter,” the inaugural “Fantastic Beasts” movie takes place in 1920s New York and stars Eddie Redmayne as a British “magizoologist” named Newt Scamander who travels across the pond to hunt for magical creatures.
