Borrowing a page from Disney’s playbook is paying off big time for Universal at the box office, where the live-action remake of DreamWorks Animation‘s How to Train Your Dragon opened to a series-best $83.7 million domestically and $197.8 million globally, according to Sunday estimates. That includes a huge international haul of $114.1 million from 51 markets.
Graced with rave exit scores from moviegoers — including an A CinemaScore and an almost-unheard-of 98 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes — the summer event pic is winning over both families and younger single adults who grew up on the animated franchise. It’s the same phenomenon that has turned Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch into a box office blockbuster. Case in point: nearly half of those rushing out to see How to Train Your Dragon on Friday were Gen Zers between the ages of 13 and 24. This is the first time DreamWorks Animation, now owned by Universal, has done a live-action rendition, with a sequel already dated for 2027.
The movie boasts one of the top-10 starts of all time for a live-action reimagining, including the seventh-biggest at the worldwide box office, the eighth-biggest domestically and the sixth-biggest internationally. It’s also the eighth-best opening of all time for Father’s Day weekend and the fourth-biggest opening of the year to date. Some rivals show the film coming in closer to $86 million domestically; final grosses will be released Monday morning.
Franchise regular Dean DeBlois returned to direct the live-action remake of his 2010 film about a young Viking boy named Hiccup (Mason Thames) who ignores the wishes of his father (Gerard Butler) and befriends a feared Night Fury dragon named Toothless. The pic cost a net $150 million to produce before marketing.
How to Train Your Dragon topped Friday’s North America chart with a mighty $35.6 million from 4,356 theaters, including $11.1 million in previews. That’s less than $10 million behind the entire three-day opening of the 2010 pic, which started off with $43.7 million, not adjusted for inflation. And it will easily be the top opening of the series, supplanting 2019’s threequel How to Train Your Dragon: Hidden World ($55 million).
After ruling the roost for three consecutive weekends and shattering numerous records, Lilo & Stitch grossed an estimated $15.5 million domestically from 3,675 locations to place second, while earning another $31.1 million overseas as it flew past the $850 million mark worldwide. That’s an impressive showing considering the competition from How to Train Your Dragon. Lilo has now earned $366.4 million domestically and $492 million overseas for a global total of $858.4 million, making it the second top-grossing title of the year behind A Minecraft Movie ($950 million.) Also over the weekend, it passed up the entire domestic runs of fellow live-action titles The Jungle Book ($364 million) and Aladdin ($356 million), unadjusted. Other live-action pics Lilo had already out-performed include 2023’s The Little Mermaid, which grossed $298 million domestically.
Filmmaker Celine Song’s new romantic drama Materialists, playing in 2,844 cinemas, came in third with a better-than-expected $12 million to score A24’s third-biggest wide opening ever, unadjusted. The star-studded pic features Dakota Johnson as an ambitious New York matchmaker pairing clients with rich partners who herself becomes entangled in a love triangle with her struggling former flame (Chris Evans) and a high-powered exec (Pedro Pascal). Song herself worked as a matchmaker as a way of supporting her dreams of becoming a filmmaker.
Critics like Materialists— Song’s follow up to Past Lives — more than moviegoers. The film received a worrisome B- CinemaScore from ticket buyers, while the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is a tepid 70 percent. A24 is confident that strong reviews will nevertheless provide the specialty film with long legs.
How to Train Your Dragon has a huge advantage in taking over Imax screens that had belonged to Paramount and Skydance’s Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning for three weekends, but the Tom Cruise-starrer fell only 31 percent in its fourth outing to $10.3 million from 2,942 theaters for a domestic tally of $166.3 million. Globally, the tentpole crossed the $500 million mark after earning another $21 million overseas for an international cume of $340.5 million and $506.8 million worlwide.
Dragon is also playing in numerous other large-format screen this weekend. All told, premium screens are responsible for 40 percent of the pic’s gross to date.
Lionsgate’s John Wick spinoff Ballerina continued to struggle in its second weekend, at least in the U.S., despite stellar audience exits and solid reviews. The female-led action pic, starring franchise newcomer Ana de Armas, tumbled 62 percent to an estimated $9.4 million for a 10-day domestic tally of $41.8 million.
June 15, 7:15: Updated with revised estimates.
This story was originally published June 14 at 10:13 a.m.
