Harry Potter spinoff ‘Fantastic Beasts’ tops box office

It’s the Roaring Twenties and the movie starts with Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a hysterically awkward wizard who will later write the famous textbook “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, traveling to NY with a case of magical creatures that eventually escape. It’s closest to – and could conceivably surpass, once final tallies are in – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which opened with $77.1 million in July 2007.

“‘Fantastic Beasts” biggest advantage is brand recognition”, said Shawn Robbins, senior box office analyst at Boxoffice.com.

Fantastic Beasts should fall next weekend to #2 as it makes way for Moana. Fantastic Beasts is also launching around the world this weekend, where it took in $23.5 million on Wednesday and Thursday from its first raft of markets.

One of the very first things that made itself apparent in this film was the attractive colors and textures, not only of the Fantastic Beasts, but on the storefronts, in the wardrobes, and overall textures of the people of old New York City. “Doctor Strange” (Disney) – $17.7 million in Week 3 ($181.5 million total) 2.

Fox’s “Trolls” took third in its third week with $17.5 million.

The first Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them came out on Friday and is filled with small and big references Potter fans will love.

Ex-Hogwarts student and magizoologist Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, arrives in NY with a briefcase of magical creatures. If you don’t know them well you won’t be missing anything, but those who do may want to brush up for the new movies by rereading some of Dumbledore’s flashbacks to his earlier years (for the record, Dumbledore doesn’t appear in this movie, though we’ve been promised he’ll appear in later ones).

“It destroyed her what they did, she was never right again”.

STX’s “Edge of Seventeen” didn’t fare much better than the other struggling new releases. As Jacob says in the screenplay and in the movie which barely changes a thing from its source material, “I ain’t got the brains to make this up”.

“The Edge of Seventeen” also stars Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick, and is playing on 1,945 screens. The eight-movie Hogwarts series ended on a high note in 2010 and 2011, with the two halves of Deathly Hallows opening at $125 million and $169.2 million, respectively.

Focus Features also debuted “Nocturnal Animals”, Tom Ford’s noir-ish thriller, in 37 theaters where it made $493,000.

Normally, I would give you guys some idea of the the movie’s main villain, but I won’t this time. In fact, it actually takes place in 1928, 2 years after the first movie. No box office data was given for Magnolia’s horror-thriller The Eyes of My Mother or Magnolia’s action movie Officer Downe.

Tri-Star drama “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”, distributed by Sony, expanded into 1,176 theaters this weekend following a mostly sold-out limited Los Angeles and NY opening. Director Ang Lee’s drama expanded to 1,176 theaters this weekend, but it failed to put up the same impressive numbers, earning $930,000, for a paltry per-screen average of $791.

Sony is backing “Billy Lynn’s” along with Bona Film Group, Film4, and Studio 8.

Looking ahead to next weekend, four new films arrive in wide release, ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

“I think there are nearly too many options right now”, noted Dergarabedian, who expects the five-day Thanksgiving frame to be a record-breaker thanks to new openers like Disney’s “Moana” and audiences looking to catch up on things they’ve missed.