It may have been Friday the 13th this weekend, but How to Train Your Dragon wasn’t feeling any bad luck.
Beating tracking by as much as $20 million (depending on who you ask), How to Train Your Dragon flew past expectations with a spectacular opening of $83 million. Yes, yes, it’s not as big as Lilo & Stitch, but it was never going to be. Disney has marketing power that no one else has for this sort of thing. At the end of the day, Dragon soared higher than any previous entry in the franchise (topping the $55 million made by How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World back in February 2019). No one at Universal is complaining.
And neither are audiences. Critics can bemoan this essentially being the same film as the 2010 classic with a fresh coat of paint, but those exit scores are astonishing here, and they are what really matters. Currently, the “popcorn” rating on How to Train Your Dragon is 98%, which is almost unheard of in this day and age. Don’t be surprised if Toothless and friends conquer the box office next weekend too (sorry, Elio).
But we’re not done talking about live-action remakes of Chris Sanders/Dean DeBlois animated features. Our number two movie is Lilo & Stitch, which finally got a taste of reality this week, but is still going strong. Ultimately, Stitch isn’t showcasing the legs that made Beauty and the Beast into such a mega-hit in 2017, and that may because this one wasn’t made for theaters. Still, you can hardly fault Disney for being financially savvy enough to give this a chance on the big screen. With $850 million worldwide, the results speak for themselves.
As for our other newcomers, the R-rated rom com from A24 Materialists beat forecasting with a take of $12 million. For those keeping score, that’s the third-best opening for the hipster studio to date, behind only Hereditary and Civil War. Good to know Dakota Johnson didn’t end her career with Madame Web after all. The same sadly can’t be said for NEON’s The Life of Chuck, which wowed on the film festival circuit, but isn’t getting butts in seats. It made only $2 million. Good grief!
Anyway, the top ten, via Deadline
1. How to Train Your Dragon (Uni) 4,356 theaters Fri $35.6M Sat $26.5M Sun $21.7M 3-day $83.7M/Wk 1
2. Lilo & Stitch (Dis) 3,675 (-510) theaters, Fri $4.7M (-50%) Sat $6.4M Sun $4.4M 3-day $15.5M (-52%), total $366.3M/Wk 4
3. Materialists (A24) 2,844 theaters, Fri $5.1M Sat $3.8M Sun $3M 3-day $12M/Wk 1
4. Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning (Par) 2,942 (-554) theaters Fri $2.2M (-44%) Sat $3.7M Sun $4.2M, 3-day $10.3M (-31%), Total $166.3M/Wk 4
5. Ballerina (LG) 3,409 theaters, Fri $2.35M (-78%) Sat $3.6M Sun $3.4M 3-day $9.4M (-62%), Total $41.8M/Wk 2
6. Karate Kid: Legends (Sony) 3,008 (-851) theaters, Fri $1.25M (-49%) Sat $1.8M Sun $1.8M 3-day $5M (-41%), Total $44.1M/Wk 3
7. Final Destination: Bloodlines (NL) 2,138 (-729) Fri $1.22M (-37%) Sat $1.5M Sun $1.1M, 3-day $3.9M (-40%), Total $130.6M/Wk 5
8. The Phoenician Scheme (Foc) 1,731 (+53) theaters, Fri $880K (-66%) Sat $1.1M Sun $1M 3-day $3M (-51%), Total $12.7M/Wk 3
9. Life of Chuck (NEON) 1,072 (+1056) theaters, Fri $1M (+708%) Sat $585K Sun $497K 3-day $2.1M (+838%), Total $2.4M/Wk 2
10. Sinners (WB) 951 (-567) theaters, Fri $450K (-47%) Sat $600K Sun $420K 3-day $1.47M (-48%), Total $275.4M, Wk 9