\n\tHiccup and Toothless are readying to fire up the box office.<\/p>\n
\n\tUniversal and DreamWorks Animation\u2019s live-action \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon<\/a>\u201d is poised to fly to $70 million to $80 million in its box office debut. Enthusiasm from family audiences and goodwill toward the original 2010 animated adventure could propel inaugural ticket sales even higher, according to independent tracking services and rival studios. \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon\u201d looks to collect another $110 million at the international box office, where the film lands concurrently in nearly every major territory.<\/p>\n \n\tEven the lower end of domestic projections would a strong start for \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon,\u201d which cost $150 million to produce. Set on the mythical viking village of Berk, the story follows the adventures of a scrawny misfit teen named Hiccup, who befriends an injured dragon he calls Toothless. Their bond defies centuries of tradition, where Vikings and dragons have been bitter enemies.\u00a0Reviews are positive (though not as glowing as the original film), with Variety\u2019s chief film critic Peter Debruge writing that \u201cit\u2019s hard to improve on the first movie, though the last act looks positively iconic in this new incarnation.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDean DeBlois wrote and direct the remake, having previously steered the animated trilogy \u2014 including 2014\u2019s \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon 2\u201d and 2019\u2019s \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World\u201d \u2014 to a combined $1.6 billion worldwide, along with four Oscar nominations. Universal is betting big on the live-action foray into the fantasy world; the studio has already announced the sequel, \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon 2,\u201d is set for 2027.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHow to Train Your Dragon\u201d will topple the three weekend reign of \u201cLilo & Stitch,\u201d which became the latest kid friendly film to ignite the box office. Disney\u2019s live-action remake will compete with \u201cDragon\u201d for family audiences. But \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d is already a blockbuster with a massive $339 million domestically and $775 million globally since the Memorial Day holiday frame. It\u2019s expected to eventually become the year\u2019s first billion dollar release.<\/p>\n \n\tAlso new to theaters, A24\u2019s romantic drama \u201cMaterialists\u201d is aiming for $8 million to $9 million from 2,800 venues in its first weekend in theaters. Directed by Celine Song in her follow-up to the Oscar nominated \u201cPast Lives,\u201d the film follows a New York City matchmaker (Dakota Johnson) who finds herself torn between the perfect match (Pedro Pascal) and her imperfect ex (Chris Evans). \u201cMaterialists,\u201d which carries a $20 million price tag, should benefit from reviews and word-of-mouth. Variety\u2019s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman praised the movie<\/a> as a \u201csharp and serious social romantic drama full of telling observations about the way we live now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hiccup and Toothless are readying to fire up the box office. Universal and DreamWorks Animation\u2019s live-action \u201cHow to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,36987,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-176316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-how-to-train-your-dragon","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114666109723597881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}