Universal and DreamWorks’ live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon is already tracking well at the box office and smashing a franchise record. After Disney found some success redoing beloved animated movies in live-action, Universal followed suit by greenlighting a remake of How To Train Your Dragon only a few years after the animated trilogy concluded. The new version of the familiar story returns director Dean DeBlois and Gerard Butler as Stoick, while Mason Thames headlines as Hiccup opposite the lovable night fury, Toothless. Given the success of the animated films, the remake has big expectations to meet.

This includes at the box office, and How To Train Your Dragon‘s live-action remake is already doing just that. According to early box office projections provided by BoxOffice Pro, the live-action version of How To Train Your Dragon is already flying to an $80 million to $100 million opening weekend domestically. These are early projections, so additional tracking figures will continue to surface ahead of the film’s release on June 13, 2025. But, the potential $100 million opening would nearly double the franchise’s current box office record held by How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World‘s $55 million opening.

What How To Train Your Dragon’s Early Box Office Projections Mean For The Movie

It’s Already On A Path To Success

These early box office projections for How To Train Your Dragon‘s live-action remake are certainly encouraging. It is easily going to set a new franchise record during its opening weekend now. The first of the animated trilogy made $43 million, while the sequel made $49 million. How To Train Your Dragon 3 jumped up slightly once again with its $55 million performance. Even if How To Train Your Dragon hits the low end of the early projections, it will still easily beat the previous record. It’s not a question of if the remake sets a franchise record opening, but more so how big of a record opening it has.

It’s also worth noting that How To Train Your Dragon‘s early box office tracking is better than most of Disney’s live-action remakes. Only six made over $80 million in their opening weekends, and only four went over $100 million. Those figures will increase by one, with Lilo & Sтιтch potentially breaking the Memorial Day opening record this weekend. How To Train Your Dragon will give Universal a major win if it can perform on par with the biggest of Disney’s remakes.

Our Take On How To Train Your Dragon’s Box Office Projections

I’m not surprised that How To Train Your Dragon‘s box office projections are already reaching these levels. The animated trilogy is excellent and a franchise modern audiences are familiar with. Even if the remake is a familiar story redone in live-action, many will just be happy to get another adventure with Hiccup and Toothless in any capacity. It helps, too, that early reactions to How To Train Your Dragon have been largely positive. Universal’s confidence is clear, and these projections make it clear why they already announced a live-action sequel for 2027.

My question now is just how big How To Train Your Dragon‘s remake will be. A $100 million opening weekend domestically would give the film a good start to possibly hit $1 billion worldwide, depending on how it does internationally. It should have no trouble beating How To Train Your Dragon 2‘s $621 million haul to be the highest-grossing entry in the franchise overall. I always expected How To Train Your Dragon‘s remake to be a hit – I predicted a $760 million performance for it at the start of the year – but now it could go much higher.

Source: BoxOffice Pro