(Photo: Xinhua)

The Warner Bros. much-anticipated "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" hit Chinese screens on Friday, coinciding with the North American market release.

"Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" is the second in a spinoff movie series that started with "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in 2016, which took in 814 million U.S. dollars at the global box office.

Written by J.K. Rowling and starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston and Johnny Depp, the film is about Albus Dumbledore working with his former student Newt Scamander to thwart the divisive wizard leader Gellert Grindelwald.