'Fantastic Beasts' flies to top of weekend box office

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"Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" crawled, slithered and flew its way to the top of the weekend box office with a 62.2-million-US-dollar opening in the US and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The latest offering from the Harry Potter multiverse fell short of the opening of the first film in the Warner Bros. series, 2016's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," which debuted with 74 million US dollars in a similar November release and went on to earn 234 million US dollars in the US and Canada.

But all the Harry Potter films have had a broad international reach, and "Fantastic Beasts" had a hearty worldwide weekend gross, bringing in 191 million US dollars internationally for a total of 253 million US dollars, according to the studio's estimates.

Actors Callum Turner (L) and Eddie Redmayne attend "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" premiere at the Kinepolis cinema in Madrid, Spain, November 15, 2018. /VCG Photo

"Clearly it's a huge phenomenon globally," said Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros.

"Fantastic Beasts," the second film in the series of Potter prequels written by J.K. Rowling and starring Eddie Redmayne, Johnny Depp and Jude Law, had a budget of 200 million US dollars. Its reviews were largely lackluster, with critics saying Rowling's magical world is wearing thin after 10 films.

Globally the first nine films have earned 8.5 billion US dollars, a total that this one's worldwide take will inflate.

"This is yet another example of a movie whose opening weekend skewed heavily into the international territories," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. "This happens a lot with bigger franchise movies. For many of these blockbusters, it's the international component that comes in and saves the day."

J.K.Rowling attends the UK Premiere of "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald" at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, November 13, 2018. /VCG Photo

A Chinese beast called "Zouwu," a tiger-like creature with fluffy, striped fur and sharp fangs and claws, debuts in the film. It has become a hit on social media, with numerous users sharing memes, gifs and sketches of the beast.

After watching the movie, Twitter user @kbookdragon commented, "Also I think the zouwu dethroned the occamy as my favorite fantastic beast from this franchise. It is the most precious and majestic kitty I've ever seen."

"The Zouwu is terrifying if you're a normal human being and to Newt Scamander, like a big kitten," Rowling told a Chinese film crew, according to NextShark, "This is how it's described in Chinese mythology: gigantic elephant-sized cat, five-colored. It really does take a Newt Scamander to contain and look after that beast."

(Top Photo: Atmosphere at the UK Premiere of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in London's Leicester Square in London, UK, November 13, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): AP