Harry Potter spinoff ‘Fantastic Beasts’ easily wins weekend box office

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sees Eddie Redmayne as the young wizard Newt Scamander in 1920s NY, who accidentally releases magical creatures into the muggle world.

The success of the top films this weekend didn’t leave much room for other new, wide releases to find their footing this weekend, however.

“If you have read the (Harry) Potter books you know this period threatened to become very dystopian”. Recent news states that Niantic is planning to develop “Harry Potter Go” that would feature wizard battles and beast hunting.

Rowling acknowledged that since the end of the top-grossing Harry Potter series there has been a “huge hunger” for more content centered on the world she created.

Rowling took to Twitter on Monday to address some questions fans had about the new film. The Edge of Seventeen came in seventh with $4.8 million.

Fantastic Beasts has received broadly positive reviews from critics.

Warner Bros., part of Time Warner Inc., has a lot riding on Fantastic Beasts.

When his suitcase was inadvertently opened by a Muggle, a non-magical person named Jacob Kowalski, the NY falls into danger. The movie is being distributed by Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios, a production division of e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them full movie will be directed by David Yates and he is expected to be the director for the other four.

It was a big hit internationally over the weekend, bringing in a haul of $143.3 million (£116 million) at the worldwide box office.

Would-be awards contender Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk fared worst of all, as the Ang Lee film earned only $1 million, marking the $40 million war drama as an outright bomb.

After the highly anticipated release last weekend, most of us are finally able to say that we’ve seen Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.