“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” has arrived, and once again, it’s unclear who wanted it.
The “Fantastic Beasts” series, starring Eddie Redmayne as wizard and magic zoologist Newt Scamander, were created after the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2” in 2011.
Warner Bros (T) and author J.K. Rowling have never been able to escape the widespread sentiment that the films exist solely to further the Harry Potter brand without adding much to it.
The 2016 film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” did fine enough with critics, but it was only the 12th biggest film of the year, whereas the “Harry Potter” films used to regularly take the top spot.
The 2018 installment “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” found critics starting to turn on the series, and the box office was remarkably light. “Grindelwald” was the 20th biggest film of the year, coming in well after “Aquaman.”
There was a time when a Harry Potter film would have no problem outperforming an Aquaman film.
Warner Bros.
Critics Are Not Liking The New “Fantastic Beasts” Film At All
Warner Bros can’t be pleased with this state of events, but it doesn’t seem like “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” marks any kind of turnaround.
As we previously noted, critics think this is the worst Harry Potter-related film yet, with the Daily Beast calling to just end this series already.
But that’s not likely to happen, at least just yet.
Warner has committed to a five-film plan for the “Fantastic Beasts” series, which is remarkable for a property that was basically a textbook (i.e. something without a story or characters) mentioned in the “Harry Potter” books.
So even if the entire premise seems like a stretch, it’s a stretch Warners finds profitable enough to make.
But What Does Twitter Think Of The “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”?
Of course, critics and filmgoers often have very different opinions about what constitutes a good film.
The “Transformers” films regularly dominated the box office not that long ago, and critics generally treated those as a crime against art.
Warner wouldn’t keep making these films if someone wasn’t seeing them, though the films limited appeal might be further decreasing.
So far, the early box office returns for the film are down compared to the last two, according to Variety.
The early Twitter returns from people who saw a late night screening indicate that the film has bad word of mouth, though there are people who enjoyed it.
