For the fifth weekend in a row, our number one movie is a live-action remake of a classic Chris Sanders/Dean DeBlois animated feature. How to Train Your Dragon continued to soar above everyone else with a second weekend take of $37 million. Some are claiming the drop is steeper than expected, but we have to take into account that Dragon’s “real” Friday-Sunday opening last week was in the $70 million range, plus $11 million in Thursday previews (and even those included “special screenings” on Wednesday night). In other words, the math gets different once you accept that we are really dealing with four-day weekends every week in the current box office climate. The game has changed, and so must our expectations.

And really, with $160 million in the Berk bank so far, Hiccup and Toothless are all smiles. The same unfortunately can’t be said for Elio, which had Pixar’s worst opening…ever. Disney is giving it $21 million in estimates, and yes, we can make that number seem even worse when we bring up that Elio had two days of preview screenings, so really, we are talking about five days of box office here. Why on earth did Disney think this stood a chance against a beloved property like How to Train Your Dragon? Why not move Elio to the fall?

The “silver lining”–if we can call it that–is Pixar’s own Elemental from 2023. That film also had a “soft” debut (but bigger than Elio’s, natch!), and then went on to make more than five times its opening weekend when all is said and done. That’s the power of old school word of mouth (I saw Elemental in a crowd of probably about thirty people, but the entire audience was into it. Kids and adults were applauding when they kissed!). However, I’m afraid Elio doesn’t really have a chance of repeating that. There are simply too many movies vying for the attention of families right now, including Disney’s own Lilo & Stitch.

It’s worth noting that Elio was originally supposed to open in March of 2024, however in light of the Hollywood strikes, Disney jumped at an excuse to be able to push it back eighteen months. In other words, this was apparently a troubled production, and if you watch the teaser trailer that was released two years ago, it seems to be marketing a completely different film. It seems the entire movie basically got reworked, with a shift in directors for undisclosed reasons (for those who care, the exact same thing happened with 2012’s Brave). Did it pay off? Who knows. In any case, Elio is not out of this world. And I take no pleasure in saying that.

Elsewhere, 28 Years Later opened to $30 million, which is a respectable number, but way below where more optimistic tracking had it (seriously, did this ever have a shot at $50 million?). That’s not bad for the return of a franchise which has been as dead as a zombie since 2007 (yes, you are that old), especially in a post The Walking Dead world. What might hurt Years going forward is a strongly divided reaction from fans. That killer trailer from last year is supposedly largely misleading, making the film look much more focused on action and suspense than it actually is. 28 Years Later, like it or not, is intended to be the launch of a new trilogy, with the next entry currently set to hit theaters next summer.

Finally, there’s Bride Hard. Fuck Bride Hard. No one is going to Bride Hard. And yet it somehow got a wide release, despite looking like something you’d find on The Hallmark Channel if they showed movies with tonally jarring violence. And it must’ve flopped pretty badly, since I can’t find any information as to what kind of numbers it did.

Anyway, the top ten, via Deadline

1.) How to Train Your Dragon (Uni) 4,373 (+17) theaters, Fri $10.8M (-69%), Sat $14.5M, Sun $11.6M 3-day $37M (-58%), Total $160.4M/Wk 2

2.) 28 Years Later (Sony) 3,444 theaters, Fri $14.1M, Sat $8.8M Sun $7M 3-day $30M/Wk 1

3.) Elio (Dis) 3,750 theaters Fri $9M Sat $6.6M Sun $5.4M 3-day $21M/Wk 1

4.) Lilo & Stitch (Dis) 3,375 (-300) theaters, Fri $3M (-38%) Sat $3.8M Sun $2.9M 3-day $9.7M (-38%), Total $386.7M/Wk 5

5.) Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning (Par) 2,603 (-339) theaters, Fri $1.8M (-20%) Sat $2.7M Sun $2M 3-day $6.55M (-33%), Total $178.3M/Wk 5

6.) Materialists (A24) 2,844 theaters, Fri $1.9M (-61%) Sat $2.2M Sun $1.6M 3-day $5.8M (-49%), Total $23.9M/Wk 2

7.) Ballerina (LG) 2,537 (-872) theaters, Fri $1.29M (-45%) Sat $1.89M Sun $1.36M 3-day $4.5M (-54%), Total $51.1M/Wk 3

8.) Karate Kid: Legends (Sony) 2,006 (-1,002) theaters, Fri $700K (-45%) Sat $975K Sun $725K 3-day $2.4M (-54%), Total $49.3M/Wk 4

9.) Final Destination: Bloodlines (NL/WB) 1,342 (-796) theaters, Fri $575K (-53%) Sat $770K Sun $540K 3-day $1.88M (-53%), Total $134.8M

10.) Kuberra (Prath) 500 theaters, Fri $930K, Sat $477K Sun $343K 3-day $1.75M/Wk 1