Fantastic Beasts 3 Wins the US Weekend Box Office as The Batman Crosses $750 Million

As Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore won the domestic weekend box office with a Harry Potter franchise-low $43 million, The Batman has soared to over $750 million globally.

As reported by Variety, Fantastic Beasts 3 continues the downward trend that began after the original Fantastic Beasts was released and followed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2’s $169 million opening.

The first film brought in $74 million, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald earned $62 million, and now the third entry has brought that down to $43 million. Fantastic Beasts 3 has brought in $193 million globally so far, and it is on its way to recouping its $200 million production cost.

In our Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore review, we said that it “looks drab and feels like it was made by people who want to leave its magical premise behind, even though the series refuses to have anything resembling grown-up politics or perspectives.”

The Fantastic Beasts saga was meant to last for five films, but Warner Bros. is allegedly waiting to see how this latest film performs before moving forward with a script for a potential fourth film.

Besides middling reviews, the Fantastic Beasts franchise has been marred with J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans rhetoric, domestic abuse allegations that led Johnny Depp to exit, and Ezra Miller’s recent arrest for disorderly conduct and harrassment.

The Batman, on the other hand, continues to impress and has reached $750 million globally. The Batman remains the highest-grossing film of the year and has brought in $365 million domestically and $386 million internationally.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 sped to second place this past weekend with $30 million in ticket sales. Sonic’s second outing saw a 58% decline from its opening weekend but still managed to pass $119 million in North America.

The Lost City took third with $6.5 million, Everything Everywhere All at Once took fourth place with $6.1 million, and Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson’s Father Stu rounded out the top five with $5 million. Morbius was pushed out of the top five as it only brought in $4.7 million.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.