Box Office Weekend – ‘Train Your Dragon’ Franchise Sees Highest Opening Ever
This weekend at the box office, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World managed to score the biggest opening in the history of its franchise, saving the best for last.
The final film in the popular DreamWorks Animation series brought home over $58M between about $3M in early previews for the film and a $55M+ weekend haul. That’s the second-best opening for an animated film in February since The LEGO Movie, which puts a bit of salt in the wound of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part after that movie came in below expectations earlier in the month. While there’s a way to go before the movie crosses its $129M budget domestically, there’s plenty for DreamWorks to be happy about; the third iteration of the Dragon franchise has the international box office on fire, so suffice to say, this movie will definitely be a worthwhile endeavor for Universal.
Meanwhile, Alita: Battle Angel took a bigger dive than some had hoped this weekend, dropping around 58% instead of an expected 50%. This should translate to a final domestic total between $90M and $100M, although it should still be noted that that range would still be a lot better than the “$50M domestic in a best-case scenario” outlook that some pundits had expected. Conversely, the movie did a few million dollars better in the Chinese box office than expected with $65M, and that market is absolutely crucial to getting Alita to a point where it can break even. It seems like the hope for potential sequels rests upon producer James Cameron’s Avatar 2 doing well, provided that he could make the follow-ups to Alita for less money. Considering that the movie was expected to be box office poison, Cameron’s future bosses at Disney may find that there could be potential in continuing and concluding the series if money is spent more effectively and marketing is more on-point.
The WWE biopic Fighting With My Family had a successful expansion with over $8M in its second weekend, putting it on-track to clear the film’s $11M production budget with ease. That’s still on the lower end of expectations, but despite that, it overperformed in certain regions nationwide, and the movie should have no issue getting to a point where it can profit. The movie is expected to be pretty leggy and end its run with a multiplier of four to five times the total it has amassed over this weekend. Meanwhile, the faith-based Run the Race managed to make its way in with a $2M+ opening. No production budget has been given, but usually movies of this subject material tend to be inexpensive in nature, so it should see profit.
The Top Twelve box office performances for the three-day weekend can be summarized as follows (bolded titles are new releases):
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation) – $55.527M Weekend, $58.027M Total.
- Alita: Battle Angel (20th Century Fox) – $12M Weekend/$60.681M Total; 57.9% Drop.
- The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (Warner Bros./Warner Animation Group) – $10.015M Weekend/$83.619M Total; 51.9% Drop.
- Fighting With My Family (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) – $8.012M Weekend/$8.227M Total; 5673.2% Rise.
- Isn’t It Romantic (Warner Bros./New Line) – $7.51M Weekend/$33.768M Total; 47.3% Drop.
- What Men Want (Paramount Pictures) – $5.2M Weekend/$45.061M Total; 51.3% Drop.
- Happy Death Day 2U (Universal Pictures/Blumhouse Productions) – $4.988M Weekend/$21.611M Total; 47.5% Drop.
- Cold Pursuit (Lionsgate Films/Summit Entertainment) – $3.3M Weekend/$27.085M Total; 44.8% Drop.
- The Upside (STX Films) – $3.21M Weekend/$99.749M Total; 41.5% Drop.
- Run the Race (Roadside Attractions) – $2.273M Total.
- Green Book (Universal Pictures) – $2.088M Weekend/$69.605M Total; 27.7% Drop.
- Glass (Universal Pictures/Blumhouse Productions) – $1.764M Weekend/$107.926M Total; 55% Drop.
Glass, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, Alita: Battle Angel, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World are now playing in theaters.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
