Box Office Update: How to Train Your Dragon to have a franchise-best opening

Live-action remakes of animated classics are proving to be on a hot streak this summer. While everyone thought the failure of Disney’s Snow White spelled doom for this tactic, Lilo & Stitch became a huge breakout hit on Memorial Day weekend, and it’s been supplanted at the top of the heap by How to Train Your Dragon. Deadline reports that the movie is on par for an $80 million opening, which is about $20 million than we predicted earlier his week. Notably, the live-action reboot is poised to have a much larger opening than any other film in the franchise. Currently, the highest opener of the series is How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, which opened with $55 million. Oddly, despite having the highest opening of the series, it was the lowest-grossing instalment, earning a domestic total of $160 million compared to the $177 million the second film earned and the $217 million the original scored. 

An $80 million opening proves that Universal’s decision to green-light a sequel even before this opened was a smart move. The opening will also be the largest opening of Gerard Butler’s career, bigger even than 300, which opened with $70 million (although adjusted for inflation, it’s still his biggest movie). Notably, Lionsgate’s John Wick spin-off, Ballerina, is having a disastrous second weekend, with it likely to fall about 65% for an $8 million or so weekend. Ouch. It will be beaten by Lilo & Stitch, as well as Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and Materialists, which is proving to be A24’s biggest hit in a while, with a $12 million weekend. That’s pretty good for an adult-skewing romance, although the B-minus CinemaScore is worrisome, as audiences lured in by the good vibes might be surprised by how savage it is at times.

We’ll be back tomorrow with our full roundup!

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