Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will win its first weekend at the box office, but the sequel is still debuting below expectations.

The film (which is the second in a proposed series of five) earned $25.7 million on Friday. This, along with the Thursday night early-screenings, will help give the film a projected domestic box office haul of $63-$65 million for its opening weekend. This is below the opening for the original film in 2016, which saw the first Harry Potter spinoff earning $74.4 million. This means that Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will have the lowest-grossing opening domestically for any movie in the franchise.

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Despite not meeting the bar set by its predecessor, the new film will still win the box office this weekend, outperforming both The Grinch and Bohemian Rhapsody; those films are projected to earn $39 million and $15.7 million, respectively. Overall negative reviews may have played a factor in the film underperforming in the United States. As of this writing, the film is sitting at 39% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Overseas, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is actually outperformed the first Fantastic Beasts film. The movie finished Friday with $74.3 million -- a 14% increase over the first film -- and could go on to earn $185 million or more overseas in its first weekend.

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In theaters now, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is directed by David Yates from a script by J.K. Rowling. Rowling. The film stars Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Johnny Depp, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Fiona Glascott and Callum Turner.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)