How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World may post a franchise-best opening weekend at the box office. DreamWorks’ beloved trilogy is coming to a close with a chapter that promises to be as exciting and emotional as its predecessors. Early reviews for The Hidden World are quite positive, with many critics praising the gorgeous animation and compelling narrative, signifying the series is ending on a high note.
That word-of-mouth is encouraging for fans that have been following How to Train Your Dragon from the beginning, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the film will catch fire at the box office. Earlier this month, fellow animated sequel The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part debuted to widespread praise, but stumbled during its opening weekend and has only made $112.7 million worldwide so far. Fortunately, it looks like How to Train Your Dragon will avoid a similar fate, as it’s poised to do very well in its first three days.
According to Box Office Pro, The Hidden World is projected to make as much as $55 million in its opening weekend, which would be a new high for the series as a whole. The outlet believes Hidden World will gross around $47 million; couple that with the earnings from Fandango’s early screenings of the film, and How to Train Your Dragon should be at $49.5 million by Sunday. That figure would also be (slightly) more than How to Train Your Dragon 2’s $49.4 million.
As great as this sounds, it’s important to keep in mind that the performances of 2019’s early releases have proven difficult to predict. Many thought Glass and LEGO Movie 2 would be massive hits, but both underperformed and likely won’t top the hauls of their respective predecessors. In contrast, Alita: Battle Angel was projected to be a bomb and come in third during its opening weekend, yet it exceeded expectations and posted a solid debut. So, there remains a possibility The Hidden World doesn’t meet projections and ends up underwhelming. Remember, when How To Train Your Dragon 2 came out in the summer of 2014, it actually lost to R-rated comedy 22 Jump Street during its opening frame. The series may not have much drawing power with general audiences, with five years passing between installments.
All that being said, odds are How To Train Your Dragon will do very well at the box office this weekend. Especially with LEGO Movie 2 fading, Dragon doesn’t face much in the way of competition and is the week’s highest-profile new release. Wrestling film Fighting With My Family is expanding nationwide after a limited debut, but that isn’t arriving in theaters with as much fan fare and shouldn’t pose much of a threat for the top spot. It looks like critically and commercially, The Hidden World will bring its series to a rousing close.
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Source: Box Office Pro
