How to Train Your Dragon has broken a major record for the franchise. The 2025 movie is a live-action remake of the 2010 animated movie of the same name, which was based on the children’s book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell. The DreamWorks hit spawned an animated trilogy, making the remake the fourth How to Train Your Dragon movie.
The How to Train Your Dragon release kicked off by earning a domestic debut of $84.6 million, marking the best opening weekend of the franchise so far. Since then, it has soared past a worldwide total of $450 million, but it has not yet managed to outgross the entire global runs of any of the previous installments.
Per ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, as of Saturday morning, How to Train Your Dragon is expected to earn a 3-day total of $9.7 million by the end of its fourth weekend in theaters. This will push its cumulative domestic total to $222.7 million, surpᴀssing the $217.8 million gross of the 2010 movie to make the remake the highest-grossing installment in North America.
What This Means For How to Train Your Dragon
Its Next Goal Is Worldwide Franchise Domination
The reported budget of How to Train Your Dragon is $150 million, so this new domestic total pushes it even further past that number in addition to helping it break a franchise record. However, the movie still needs to climb higher globally if it is going to be anything but the lowest-grossing installment in the franchise worldwide.
Below, see a breakdown of the domestic and global performance of every installment in the franchise so far:
тιтle |
Domestic Debut |
Domestic B.O. |
Global B.O. |
---|---|---|---|
How To Train Your Dragon (2010) |
$43.7 million |
$217.8 million |
$494.9 million |
How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) |
$49.4 million |
$177 million |
$621.5 million |
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) |
$55 million |
$160.8 million |
$539.9 million |
How To Train Your Dragon (2025) |
$84.6 million |
$222.7 million+ |
$478.5 million+ |
While the full global weekend total for the new movie will not be calculated until Sunday, it is drawing close to surpᴀssing the original 2010 movie on the franchise’s global ranking, if it hasn’t already done so. However, if it is going to become the highest-grossing installment overall, it will need to surpᴀss How to Train Your Dragon 2‘s $621.5 million.
This means that it will still have to earn more than $100 million more before the end of its run. Given the fact that its weekend grosses have already dipped below $10 million at the domestic box office, this will probably take some time, if it happens at all.
Our Take On The How to Train Your Dragon Box Office Record
It Doesn’t Need To Be Compared To The Other Movies
Regardless of its global performance compared to the previous installments, the live-action remake is still a major hit given how it is already performing compared to its budget. Its performance shows that DreamWorks was wise to greenlight the upcoming How to Train Your Dragon 2 before the 2025 installment even hit theaters.
Even if it doesn’t hit a peak for the franchise as a whole, How to Train Your Dragon has entered the same overall playing field as the original hits, proving that there is still gas in the tank for the beloved family movie franchise.
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Source: ᴅᴇᴀᴅline