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Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterson in ‘Fantastic Beasts The Crimes of Grindelwald’
Whether it opens on June 3, 2022 or July 15, 2022, Warner Bros. has removed JK Rowling‘s Fantastic beasts 3 from the safe pre-Thanksgiving fantasy slot machine.
We found out yesterday that Johnny Depp would step down from his role as arch-villain Grindelwald for the next installment (and ideally the next three installments) of Warner Bros. ‘ Fantastic Animals franchise. Depp’s casting for the role, which is intended to be a surprise revealed at the end of Fantastic beasts and where to find them, has been controversial from the outset due to allegations of domestic abuse made months earlier by his then-wife Amber Heard. Your loss in a UK defamation case against Sun Labeling him a “wife beater” was apparently the final straw, as Warner Bros. asked for and received Depp’s resignation. But buried within that news story is the revelation that JK Rowling and David Yates Fantastic beasts 3 (or whatever they call it) will not open on November 12, 2021, but rather sometime in the summer of 2022.
Much of the summer 2021 slate looks like a summer 2020 reissue, especially if (as I’ve speculated) Warner Bros. Wonder Woman 1984 from Christmas 2020 to June 4, 2021 (whose change The incantation: the devil made me do it from June 4 to September 10). No Time to Die, Black Widow, Top Gun: Maverick, F9, Minions 2, Jungle Cruise, Spiral, In the Heights, The eternal purge Y The bodyguard of the hitman’s wife All will open in theaters about a year after their initial 2020 release dates. Not an exact match, as (for example) Ghostbusters: Another Life will open in June 2021 instead of July 2020 while Poison: There will be Carnage Y Shang-Chi and the legend of the ten rings now it’s summer movies and The candy man it will open next August instead of last June.
Suddenly, Cruella, Space Jam: A New Legacy Y The suicide squad They are the only “very important” launches of the summer of 2021 that were initially scheduled for the summer of 2021. And four of the most important launches of the summer of 2021 The Matrix 4, The Batman, Jurassic World: Dominion Y Spider man 3, have moved to late 2021 or early spring / summer 2022. Single dates for Fantastic beasts 3 for summer 2022 means that currently (assuming you don’t dive like a bomb Dark fenix) one of the biggest movies of the summer of 2022 scheduled so far. If it opens on June 3, 2022 (the same weekend as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004) or July 15, 2022 (same weekend as Order of the Phoenix, the half-blood prince Y The Deathly Hallows part II), the movement pulls the movie out of the safe fantasy slot before Thanksgiving.
That key “third weekend in November” slot has been the home of the great pre-Thanksgiving fantasy movie since the Ron Howard and Jim Carrey blockbuster. The Grinch ($ 260 million national) in 2000. Since then, we have seen four Harry Potter movies four Twilight Saga movies three The Hunger Games sequels, two Fantastic Animals movies and Walt Disney’s
Releasing the film to the summer has its risks, that is, it is no longer YA’s fantasy event of the moment, but rather the fantasy store of that court-appointed weekend. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban It is one of the series’ most beloved entries, but also the lowest grossing chapter ($ 249 million nationally and $ 796 million worldwide) of the opening eight films. Conversely, The Deathly Hallows part II ($ 1,342 billion in July 2011), The half-blood prince ($ 934 million in July 2009) and The order of the Phoenix ($ 942 million in July 2007) are three of the four highest grossing Harry Potter aftermathDeathly Hallows part I made $ 976 million from a November 2010 release). However, this was when Harry Potter stood aside Transformers, Shrek Y pirates of the Caribbean like the biggest franchises in the city.
With all due respect, that’s not the case with JK Rowling. Fantastic Animals prequel series. Fantastic beasts and where to find them made $ 234 million domestically and $ 812 million worldwide in a year ruled by Marvel / DC superheroes and talking animals. But nevertheless, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald made $ 656 million worldwide two years later, a reasonable drop, save for a measly $ 155 million nationally and egregious criticism and targeted reception from fans. All signs point to a crash on par with Dark Phoenix, Terminator: Dark Fate Y The Divergent Saga: Loyal, even if A) I may be wrong about that and B) arguably the series is worth ending just to keep JK Rowling happy for now. Fair or not, summer relocation implies that it is no longer presented as a seasonal event.
I hate to argue that releasing the film in the summer of 2022, especially an early June release, qualifies as a burnout. However, that is exactly what happened to Dark fenix (from November 2, 2018 to June 4, 2019) and the then canceled Divergent Saga: Ascendant (moved from March 24, 2017 to June 9, 2017). Either way, at this very early juncture, with the understanding that post-COVID theater could look very different than pre-COVID theater, Fantastic beasts 3 is set to be one of the hottest movies of summer 2022 by default, along with Black Panther 2, John Wick: Chapter 4, Jurassic World: Dominion, Captain Marvel 2 and (theoretically) Indiana Jones 5. Losing Johnny Depp is an interesting development and may have an impact on the box office abroad, but the decision to open it in the summer may prove more important.
