{"id":186907,"date":"2025-06-15T17:36:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T17:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/186907\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T17:36:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T17:36:14","slug":"how-to-train-your-dragon-opens-to-83-million-materialists-impresses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/186907\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Train Your Dragon Opens to $83 Million, Materialists Impresses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cHow to Train Your Dragon<\/a>\u201d flew to the top of the box office charts, earning a stronger-than-expected $83 million in its first weekend of release.<\/p>\n

\n\tEnthusiasm from family audiences and nostalgia toward the original 2010 animated adventure helped to propel inaugural ticket sales above expectations of $70 million to $80 million<\/a>. Universal\u2019s live-action remake brought in another $114 million at the international box office for a mighty worldwide start of $197.8 million.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow to Train Your Dragon\u201d cost $150 million to produce and roughly $100 million to market. It\u2019s the latest PG-rated movie to score at the box office, joining the company of \u201cA Minecraft Movie\u201d and \u201cLilo & Stitch.\u201d Through the first half of 2025, PG films have generated $1.53 billion at the box office. Those ticket sales represent roughly 41% of the year-to-date revenue, the highest percentage of any rating this year, according to Comscore.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPG has become the goldilocks of ratings, one that indicates a film is appropriate for kids but still has enough edge to appeal to young adults, teens and more mature moviegoers,\u201d says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. \u201cThis is certainly a trend that should carry over to \u2018Elio,\u2019 \u2018Smurfs\u2019 and \u2018Bad Guys 2,\u2019 [which are] yet to come on the summer movie slate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDean DeBlois wrote and directed the remake, having previously steered the $1.6 billion-grossing animated trilogy, which includes 2014\u2019s \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon 2\u201d and 2019\u2019s \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.\u201d 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. Reviews aren\u2019t glowing (77% on Rotten Tomatoes) compared to the original film. But more importantly, at least in terms of staying power, audience reactions have been enthusiastic (the film earned an \u201cA\u201d grade on CinemaScore exit polls). In a sign of confidence, Universal has already announced a live-action sequel, \u201cHow to Train Your Dragon 2,\u201d for 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur filmmaker Dean DeBlois created an incredible tale with heart, action and emotion. Multiple generations are in love with it,\u201d says Universal\u2019s domestic distribution chief Jim Orr. \u201cWith our audience scores, I can only believe we are going to have a long run throughout the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow to Train Your Dragon\u201d toppled the three weekend reign of fellow kid friendly hit, \u201cLilo & Stitch.\u201d In a distant second place, Disney\u2019s live-action remake has collected $15.5 million in its fourth weekend of release. It\u2019s already a blockbuster with $366 million domestically and $858 million globally. It\u2019s on pace to be the year\u2019s first billion dollar release.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe weekend\u2019s other major wide release, A24\u2019s \u201cMaterialists<\/a>,\u201d opened at No. 3 with a promising $12 million from 2,844 venues. Despite a mixed audience reception (a \u201cB-\u201d grade on CinemaScore), the film launched above projections of $8 million to $10 million. Directed by Celine Song in her follow-up to the Oscar-nominated \u201cPast Lives,\u201d the movie follows a New York City matchmaker (Dakota Johnson) who finds herself in a love triangle with a wealthy suitor (Pedro Pascal) and an imperfect ex (Chris Evans). A24 spent $20 million on the film, not including marketing fees.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a grown-up story that\u2019s well-timed as summer counter-programming,\u201d says David A. Gross, who runs the FranchiseRe movie consulting firm. \u201cCeline Song is a huge talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFourth place went to Paramount\u2019s \u201cMission: Impossible \u2013 The Final Reckoning\u201d with $10.3 million from 2,942 locations in its fourth frame, declining 31% from the prior weekend. The eighth entry in Tom Cruise\u2019s 29-year-old action franchise has amassed $166.3 million in North America and $506 million worldwide to date. Against its massive $400 million budget, though, \u201cThe Final Reckoning\u201d doesn\u2019t the strength to climb out of the red in its theatrical run. (That\u2019s because movie theater owners get to keep half of ticket sales.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBallerina,\u201d a \u201cJohn Wick\u201d spinoff starring Ana de Armas as a dancer-turned-assassin, rounded out the top five. The film earned $9.4 million from 3,409 theaters in its second weekend of release, a 62% decline from its debut. So far, \u201cBallerina\u201d has generated $41.8 million in North America and $91.5 million globally, a sorta middling result for the $90 million budgeted film. Lionsgate hopes to expand the \u201cJohn Wick\u201d franchise with many spinoffs and sequels, but the turnout for \u201cBallerina\u201d isn\u2019t exactly a glowing endorsement that audiences care about the series without Keanu Reeves as the main draw.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter this weekend, overall box office revenues are 23% above last year while still lagging 26% behind 2019, according to Comscore. Upcoming blockbuster-hopefuls that\u2019ll aim to keep multiplexes busy over the summer include Brad Pitt\u2019s racing drama \u201cF1,\u201d Universal\u2019s \u201cJurassic World,\u201d the Warner Bros. and DC epic \u201cSuperman,\u201d and Disney\u2019s Marvel adventure \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHow to Train Your Dragon\u201d flew to the top of the box office charts, earning a stronger-than-expected $83…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,36987,72120,3943,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-186907","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-materialists","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114688595331581880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186907","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=186907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}