Weekend Wrap-Up: Dragons Breath Fire and Life into the Box Office
February 26, 2019
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World not only led the way over the weekend, it had the fastest start of the year so far. This helped the overall box office grow to $127 million. This is 4.3% higher than last weekend, which might not seem impressive, but this is a post-holiday weekend and we usually see a substantial drop-off. On the other hand, this is still 34% lower than this weekend last year, as Black Panther’s sophomore stint was almost exactly double The Hidden World’s debut. This left 2019 even further behind 2018 and the gap is now 25% or $460 million at $1.36 billion to $1.82 billion.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World opened with $55.02 million over the weekend, and $57.52 million including the previous paid previews. This is higher than anticipated and the best in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise. Additionally, with excellent reviews, an A from CinemaScore, and no direct competition next weekend, the film should have relatively good legs. Also, the film wasn’t a tier-one animated film, at least not as far as its production budget goes, as it only cost $129 million. It is going to easily top this domestically, it’s going to more than double this internationally, and it will break even very early in its home market debut, if not sooner.
Alita: Battle Angel fell 57% to $12.34 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $61.02 million. The reviews didn’t help things, but this is a faster decline than I expected given its A minus from CinemaScore, so this film is partially a victim of the Fanboy Effect.
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part also fell faster than expected, but this was due in part to the stronger than expected direct competition. It still managed $9.68 million over the weekend for a three-week total of $83.29 million, keeping it on pace for $100 million domestically. It is struggling internationally, so it will take a while to break even.
Fighting With My Family also missed expectations with $7.81 million over the weekend for a total of $8.03 million including its week of limited release. Excellent reviews and an A minus from CinemaScore should help its legs. (This is lower than the previously announced CinemaScore, but wider audiences apparently were marginally less enthusiastic about the film than the limited audiences were. It still has a very good CinemaScore.) Additionally, since it only cost $11 million to make and the global rights only cost $17.5 million to obtain, this isn’t a bad start and ii should break even for everyone involved sometime on the home market.
Isn’t It Romantic rounded out the top five with $7.12 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $33.38 million. Again, this is lower than predicted, but not by a huge margin. It could still get to $50 million domestically, so as long as it doesn’t struggle too much internationally, it will break even sometime during its home market run.
Happy Death Day 2U was the only other film in the sophomore class and it held on the best down 49% to $4.89 million over the weekend for a two-week total of $21.51 million. Unfortunately, its theater average is low enough that it likely won’t stick around in theaters too much longer and even getting to $30 million might be asking too much. That said, it only cost $9 million to make and likely less than $20 million to advertise, so this should be enough to break even sometime on the home market.
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World Comparisons
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- Fighting With My Family Comparisons
Filed under: Weekend Wrap-up, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, Alita: Battle Angel, Isn’t it Romantic, Fighting With My Family, Happy Death Day 2U, How to Train Your Dragon