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When box office estimates for Dean DeBlois’ live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon were reported midweek, the vibe was “conservative.” There were expectations for the movie to make somewhere in the range of $65-75 million domestically, but those numbers came with a note saying that that the numbers could be significantly bigger. Now, days later, the real early numbers are in, and it can be said that yes, those predictions could have been more bullish.
While Dean Fleischer Camp’s Lilo & Stitch has dominated the weekend box office since it premiered just ahead of Memorial Day, one live-action remake has defeated another, as How To Train Your Dragon is the new number one movie in the United States and Canada. Check out the early reported results below and join me after for analysis.
|
TITLE |
WEEKEND GROSS |
DOMESTIC GROSS |
LW |
THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1. How To Train Your Dragon* |
$83,700,000 |
$83,700,000 |
N/A |
4,356 |
|
2. Lilo & Stitch |
$15,500,000 |
$366,371,809 |
1 |
3,675 |
|
3. Materialists* |
$12,000,424 |
$12,000,424 |
N/A |
2,844 |
|
4. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning |
$10,300,000 |
$166,316,000 |
3 |
2,942 |
|
5. From The World Of John Wick: Ballerina |
$9,400,000 |
$41,832,000 |
2 |
3,409 |
|
6. Karate Kid: Legends |
$5,000,000 |
$44,153,000 |
4 |
3,008 |
|
7. Final Destination: Bloodlines |
$3,900,000 |
$130,648,000 |
5 |
2,138 |
|
8. The Phoenician Scheme |
$3,050,000 |
$12,777,000 |
6 |
1,731 |
|
9. The Life Of Chuck |
$2,144,250 |
$2,441,423 |
18 |
1,072 |
|
10. Sinners |
$1,470,000 |
$275,484,000 |
9 |
951 |
Family Movies Continue To Perform Well At The Box Office As How To Train Your Dragon Soars
Besting the results put up by Jake Schreier’s Thunderbolts* a.k.a. New Avengers during its debut in the first weekend of May, How To Train Your Dragon just successfully had the fourth biggest opening weekend of 2025 thus far by making $83.7 million over the last three days. The only blockbusters released in the last few months that have done better are Jared Hess’ A Minecraft Movie ($162.8 million), Lilo & Stitch ($146 million) and Julius Onah’s Captain America: Brave New World ($88.8 million).
The ticket sales, as reported by The Numbers, are not only significant because of how they compare to 2025’s other big hits, but because of how the remake is performing compared to the animated titles in the same franchise. Going back to 2010 when Dean DuBlois’ original How To Train Your Dragon hit theaters, the films have never been known for putting up massive domestic opening weekend numbers. That original movie put up a relatively soft $43.7 million in its first three days; How To Train Your Dragon 2 debuted with $49.5 million four years later; and the trilogy ended in 2019 with How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World making $55 million when it first arrived.
The live-action remake is off to a better start than any of them, and how high it will fly (if you’ll pardon the pun) will be something to keep an eye on box office-wise through the summer. The film is obviously now on a pace to do far better than any of the titles in the animated trilogy, and all of those titles were certified hits that each finished their box office runs making at least $160.8 million at home (the 2010 movie leads the pack to date with a $217.9 million take). Making as much money as the highest grossing domestic release in the franchise would mean How To Train Your Dragon landing as the fourth biggest blockbuster of 2025 so far.
Budget obviously has to be taken into consideration in this discussion as well, but as reported by Deadline, the live-action remake had a pre-publicity and marketing cost of $150 million, which is less than the $165 million budget of its source material.
Thus far, this has only been a discussion of How To Train Your Dragon in the US and Canada, but the reality is that this is a franchise that does much better overseas than at home, and the numbers are already showing that trend continuing with the 2025 film. After this weekend, this movie has made $114. 1 million in foreign markets to go with the ticket sales domestically, which brings its worldwide haul so far up to $197.8 million.
The film’s biggest goal is to surpass the total earnings of How To Train Your Dragon 2, which made $614.6 million by the time it was done playing in cinemas around the globe, and the new chapter is off to a good start trying to make that happen.
How it will deal with forthcoming competition is a significant question mark. While Lilo & Stitch had multiple weeks without any other titles trying to steal the attention of its young target demographic, How To Train Your Dragon doesn’t have that luxury thanks to the arrival of Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi’s Elio (the new feature from Pixar) this coming Friday.
Lilo & Stitch Holds On To Second Place And Has Crossed $800 Million Worldwide
If there’s a sign that How To Train Your Dragon should be able to continue to do good business in the weeks to come, it’s that Lilo & Stitch hasn’t been totally ignored now that the new kid has arrived in the neighborhood. Ticket sales were cut in half again (it experienced a 52 percent weekend-to-weekend drop, to be totally accurate) and it still managed to add $15.5 million to its domestic total.
The movie is still going strong, and it has already made more domestically ($366.4 million) than what the original made worldwide back in 2002 ($245.8 million). That money firms up the film’s placement as the second biggest hit domestically of 2025 thus far, and it is inching closer to the $423.7 million that A Minecraft Movie brought in during its time on the big screen.
Just like How To Train Your Dragon, Lilo And Stitch continues to perform better abroad, and it has now crossed $800 million globally (the more precise figure is $810.5 million). It will need to make about $61 million more to catch up with A Minecraft Movie... but as previously reported in this box office column, its not going to get anywhere near the the $2 billion that Yu Yang’s Ne Zha 2 made in in China in the early months of 2025.
Looking ahead, Elio is going to be one of the big new wide releases coming hitting theaters this coming Friday, but it will be joined with material more targeted at adults: specifically Joseph Kosinski’s buzzy F1 starring Brad Pitt. How will the titles mix things up in the Top 10? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to find out, and check out our 2025 Movie Release Calendar to discover all of the big movies set to be released between now and the end of December.
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