The success of the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon, which already has a live-action sequel in the works, makes it so that one filmmaking duo is responsible for the two biggest hits of the genre for the year. While the How to Train Your Dragon movies are DreamWorks’ first attempts at bringing one of their classic animated properties into the live-action realm, Disney has been doing the same thing for much longer. Their live-action remakes have been part of the marketplace since the 1990s with тιтles like the 1996 Glenn Close movie 101 Dalmatians.
However, Disney live-action remakes did not come to the fore until 2010’s Alice in Wonderland made more than $1 billion, leading a number of other remakes to go into production. This includes fellow billion-dollar тιтles such as 2017’s Beauty and the Beast and 2019’s Aladdin and The Lion King. However, in recent years their output has become more spotty, with 2023’s The Little Mermaid underperforming and 2025’s Snow White failing much more catastrophically, grossing just $205.6 million against a reported $270 million budget and proving that not all live-action remakes are successful, making 2025’s biggest hits stand out even more.
Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders Are Responsible For How To Train Your Dragon
The Original 2010 Movie Spawned A Major Franchise
At the time of writing, the live-action How to Train Your Dragon box office is projected to have a global debut of more than $200 million, which will see the movie exceeding its reported $150 million budget in the first few days of its run alone. However, this almost certainly would not have been the case without the success of the original 2010 movie, for which audiences have built up major nostalgia over the years. That project was helmed by directing duo Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders and loosely based on the children’s book series by Cressida Cowell.
[2010’s How to Train Your Dragon] was nominated for two Oscars…
The original How to Train Your Dragon, which also features a screenplay by Deblois and Sanders with Will Davies, was both a critical and commercial success. In addition to spawning a major film franchise, it was nominated for two Oscars, grossed $494.9 million against its reported $165 million budget, has a near-perfect, Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, and boasts a similarly strong audience score of 91%.
Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders Are Also Behind The Original Lilo & Sтιтch
The 2025 Remake Spent Three Weekends At No. 1
Before they helmed How to Train Your Dragon for DreamWorks, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois co-wrote and co-directed the 2002 Disney animated movie Lilo & Sтιтch. The original movie grossed $273.1 million against a reported $80 million budget, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, and has a Certified Fresh 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Lilo & Sтιтch ultimately lost the Best Animated Feature Oscar to Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.
The 2002 movie’s live-action remake, which premiered in May 2025, has also proven to be a huge success. In fact, it maintained a spot at No. 1 at the domestic box office for three consecutive weeks until it was toppled by How to Train Your Dragon. The Lilo & Sтιтch box office, which is currently on a trajectory to exceed $1 billion, has broken a number of records, including earning the best Memorial Day opening weekend ever (surpᴀssing 2022’s smash hit Top Gun: Maverick). It is likely that the movie will become the third-biggest Disney live-action remake of all time.
Both Filmmakers Are Still Involved In The Live-Action Remakes
Chris Sanders Worked On Both 2025 Movies
On top of the fact that the two biggest live-action remakes of the year are based on properties helmed by Sanders and DeBlois, both filmmakers are still involved with at least one of the live-action properties apiece. For instance, DeBlois directed the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, becoming the rare director to have the opportunity to reimagine their own property in a new medium.
Dean DeBlois also directed the two animated sequels to How to Train Your Dragon, without Sanders.
While Sanders did not direct either remake, he is involved in both of them. As was the case with the previous two animated installments, he was an executive producer on 2025’s How to Train Your Dragon. While he did not direct or produce the Disney remake, he worked very closely on that project as well, as he reprised his voice role as Sтιтch in the Lilo & Sтιтch cast, making him one of very few actors to play the same role in both a Disney live-action remake and the animated movie from which it is adapted.
