‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ tops UK-Ireland box office but opens below predecessors

GBP to USD conversion rate: 1.30

Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore comfortably topped the UK-Ireland box office in its debut weekend, but could not match previous titles in the franchise.

The third instalment in the spin-off series received the widest-ever opening for Warner Bros, with 714 locations, grossing £5.9m at an average of £8,235. The first Fantastic Beasts film scored a £15.3m three-day weekend in 2016, at an average of £22,881 per location, while 2018’s Grindelwald took £12.3m for a £18,141 site average.

Nonetheless, The Secrets Of Dumbledore still received the third-highest opening weekend of 2022, behind Sing 2 (£6.8m) and The Batman (£13.5m), and ahead of Sonic The Hedgehog 2, which opened to £5m last weekend.

In its second session, Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2 took £2.9m, giving it a total of £10.6m, most likely helped by the start of the school Easter holidays.

Universal’s The Bad Guys took £1.1m in its second week, with a total so far of £4.9m.

Warner Bros’ The Batman took £623,964 in its sixth session, bringing it up to £39.2m.

In its second weekend, Sony’s Morbius grossed £734,000, down 71% on its opening session of £2.5m. The action title’s total now stands at £5.1m. Uncharted, another action title from Sony, continues to pull in audiences in its ninth session, taking £108,000, bringing its total up to £23.9m.

Universal took £89,060 from the third weekend of Michael Bay’s Ambulance, giving it a £1.5m total. Another key holdover for Universal, Sing 2, took £52,887 in its 11th session, with its overall figure now standing at £32.4m. Sing 2 has now passed $400m at the worldwide box office, the tenth title to do so.

Mubi’s Norwegian-language title The Worst Person In The World enjoyed a respectable third weekend. The Joachim Trier directed feature took £87,614 and is now up to £707,513.

Graham Moore’s The Outfit, released by Universal and starring Mark Rylance, opened with £83,728 from 155 locations, with an average of £540, and a total including previews of £96,545.

Warner Bros’ The Nan Movie took £44,178 in the fourth weekend, now standing at a total of £1.7m.

eOne’s The Phantom Of The Open took £30,505 from its fourth weekend, bringing it to £1.7m.

Curzon’s Cannes Grand Prix winner Compartment No.6 opened to £24,582 from 30 locations, averaging £819, with an overall figure of £42,999.

Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s documentary Julia, about US cookbook author Julia Child opened in eight sites at the weekend through Sony, taking £758, giving it a location average of £95. The total, including figures from its preview at 23 Picturehouse locations on Tuesday (April 5), stands at £1,300.

Kiran Korrapati’s boxing drama Ghani opened in 44 locations for Telugu film distributor Dreamz Entertainment. It’s taken £8,515 from the weekend, rising to to £23,483 with £14,968 from previews, with a weekend site average of £194. Dreamz Entertainment’s RRR took £20,337 in its third weekend, bringing its total up to £954,179 – just shy of the million mark.

Kate Dolan’s Dublin-set housing estate horror You Are Not My Mother, released by Signature, has reported £684 from three UK sites this weekend, a £228 average, and a £1,918 UK total. This follows on from £19,936 via the Irish release on March 4, boosting its UK-Ireland total to £21,854.

Further new releases this weekend included the re-release of Oscar and Bafta winner Apple drama Coda in 150 locations through BFI Film Distribution, Bulldog Film Distribution’s All I Can Say, Modern Films’ Murina, Mubi’s Prayers For The Stolen and Other Parties’ Small Body.

• ‘Sonic The Hedgehog 2’ tops global box office with $108m; ‘Fantastic Beasts 3’ posts $58m in first markets