Some are predicting it could make less than $500 million overall. International grosses are buoying the film right now but projections for its overall gross aren’t spectacular. The previous film, The Crimes of Grindelwald, made about $160 million less than its predecessor.

This is also a pattern for the franchise. Think about that: one of the most iconic IPs of the past 30 years was outdone by a CGI hedgehog video game adaptation and a fourth-tier Jared Leto supervillain mess. It didn’t even come close to matching the $72 million that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 grossed last week. That’s only four million more than Morbius managed in its opening week. From 4,208 theaters, it grossed $43 million. The newest movie, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, did take the top spot at the North American box office this week but it wasn’t exactly a clean victory. Still, I do feel like the chaos of this franchise, which includes Rowling’s transphobia, has left a few dents. The Harry Potter franchise is too big and too popular to be felled by anything like that, alas. As we’ve seen plenty of times before, the general public doesn’t tend to care all that much about minor things like whether or not their hero is a massive sh*tting bully. There have been a lot of debates over whether Rowling’s bigotry would hurt the grosses of her current project and I’ve been hesitant to draw a direct correlation between the two. Rowling’s downward spiral into TERF radicalisation would be pitiable if she weren’t so eager to use her fame and money to hurt so many marginalized people. The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series is a fascinating example of how to blow up years’ worth of fan goodwill with sloppy writing, inflated egos, and good old-fashioned Hollywood ignorance.

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