Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes Of Grindelwald Casts US Box Office Spell

The final Harry Potter movie might have been released back in 2011, but the prequel series is proving to be a huge success. 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them made $814 million worldwide, and the sequel, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, hit theaters last weekend.

The Crimes of Grindelwald topped the US box office chart with a $62 million gross. The movie has been met with mixed reviews, and while this take is $13 million less than the first movie's weekend debut, it is still an impressive number that bodes well for its performance over the next few weeks. Worldwide, the movie has taken $256 million in its first three days.

Last week's No.1 movie, the animated kids movie The Grinch, dropped to second place this week, making $38.5 million. But despite only staying at No.1 for a week, it has made $126 million to date from a $70 million production, and is yet to open in many other countries. The Queen movie Bohemian Rhapsody is at No.3, and made $16 million in its third weekend. It is now the second biggest musical biopic of all time, after 2015's Straight Outta Compton.

The week's second biggest new movie was the Mark Wahlberg-starring comedy Instant Family, which debuted at No.4 with $14 million. The thriller Widows, starring Viola Davis and Colin Farrell, was also a new entry, and made $12.3 million to scrape into the Top 5.

Elsewhere, Disney's fantasy flop The Nutcracker and the Four Realms dropped to No.6, while last week's two box office disappointments--Overlord and The Girl in the Spider's Web--fell to No.8 and No.9 respectively. The concert film Burn the Stage: The Movie, featuring the hugely popular South Korean boyband, entered the chart at No.10.

You can see the full Top 10 list for the November 16-18 US box office below, as compiled by Box Office Mojo.

US/Canada Box Office November 16-18

1. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — $62.1 million
2. Dr. Seuss' The Grinch — $38.5 million
3. Bohemian Rhapsod — $16 million
4. Instant Family — $14.5 million
5. Widows — $12.3 million
6. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms — $4.2 million
7. A Star Is Born — $4.2 million
8. Overlord — $3.7 million
9. The Girl in the Spider's Web — $2.5 million
10. Burn the Stage: The Movie — $2.4 million