‘Fantastic Beasts’ Passes $800 Million at the Box Office

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them achieved a huge milestone today as it crossed the $800 million mark in the worldwide box office. This, along with numerous positive reviews, makes the film an overwhelming success.

Warner Brothers’ production budget for the film was $180 million, which is very high as far as the average film goes, but with already bringing in $800 million, it has far exceeded this is in profit. The film brought in $229 million domestically and $570 million internationally, which makes it the most successful international project for Warner Bros. in 2016.

Although Fantastic Beasts managed to pass Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, which only made $796.7 million in the box office, it is unlikely to surpass any of the other Harry Potter films since the next lowest grossing film from the series was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at $879 million.

This is still a huge achievement and great news for Warner Brothers as it had already announced a sequel before waiting to see if the first film would be successful. Sue Kroll, president of worldwide marketing and distribution, said this about the film’s latest milestone:

“Returning to the wizarding world in ‘Fantastic Beasts’ was a labor of love for all of us, and it has been a privilege to watch audiences around the world embrace a new cast of characters in this world created by the incomparable J.K. Rowling. This is an extraordinary milestone for the first film in our new franchise and speaks to the remarkable talents of the cast and filmmakers who worked so hard to bring it to the screen. Congratulations to them, as well as to the Warner Bros. marketing and distribution teams on this great success.”

The next installment of the Fantastic Beasts films is scheduled to hit theaters on November 16th, 2018. If it performs anywhere near as well in the box office as the first, it is likely that Warner Brothers will continue with J. K. Rowling’s plan for a five film series.