Gerard Butler’s Den of Thieves 2: Pantera wasn’t the success the actor might have hoped for, but another big release coming just a few months later in 2025 should prove more than enough to turn things around. After Den of Thieves 2‘s ending left plenty of room open for a sequel, it was clear from a story perspective that Den of Thieves 3‘s confirmation would follow quickly on its heels. But off-screen, there was a lot more reason for doubt.

One particularly notable struggle for Den of Thieves 3 will be how the sequel can add to Den of Thieves 2‘s cast to bring a bit more star power to the film’s marketing. It’s important for any sequel to build on its predecessors in order to justify continued interest, but Den of Thieves 2 establishes a specific need for any sequels to up their game to keep the franchise going. However, only if he didn’t have another guaranteed hit coming up, Den of Thieves 2 might have given Butler greater cause for concern.

Den Of Thieves 2 Wasn’t As Big Of A Hit For Gerard Butler As Expected

It Made Less Than The First Movie Against A Higher Budget

While Den of Thieves 2‘s streaming release may boost its popularity late in the game, its box office performance was another story. By the standard estimation that a movie needs to make more than double its budget to at least break even, the first Den of Thieves barely squeaked by with $80.5 million against a $30 million budget. The sequel fared much worse. Den of Thieves 2 made only $56.8 million at the box office, a drop of more than $23 million from the original despite raising the budget to $40 million.

This came as a baffling disappointment for the sequel in light of its slightly more favorable critical reception compared to the first outing. Butler also has at least two major action sequels on the horizon, with the announcements of Den of Thieves 3 and an Angel Has Fallen sequel (marking the fourth film in the Has Fallen franchise), but it’s not entirely clear as yet when either sequel will begin filming. If the actor wants a hit under his belt at any point in the near future, it falls on another highly anticipated franchise film to shoulder that burden.

Gerard Butler Has A Guaranteed Box Office Hit Coming With The Live-Action How To Train Your Dragon

Disney’s Established A Precedent That Even Their Biggest Critics Can’t Deny

The How to Train Your Dragon remake releases on June 13, 2025, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to turn a profit. While some recent live-action remakes produced by Disney performed less than the studio might have hoped, the only major flop in the last five years has been The Little Mermaid, which suffered review-bombing yet still made back significantly more of its budget than 2020’s Mulan. But other live-action remakes such as Aladdin, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast have all earned more than $1 billion with budgets of less than $300 million.

With Gerard Butler reprising his role as Stoick from the original film, How to Train Your Dragon‘s closest facsimile may be The Lion King. Disney’s remake similarly chose to bring back James Earl Jones as Mufasa and took home more than $1.6 billion at the box office, the same amount as all three How to Train Your Dragon movies combined. How to Train Your Dragon doesn’t need to achieve anything that extreme to earn a profit, but it’s already got a few things working in its favor to earn much bigger gains than Den of Thieves 2.

How To Train Your Dragon Was Always A Safer Box Office Play For Gerard Butler Than Den Of Thieves 2

It Didn’t Help That Den Of Thieves Waited So Long To Release A Sequel

The only How to Train Your Dragon controversy worth discussing is many fans’ concern that it will be too similar to the original. Others complain about its differences, but neither of these issues has hurt most live-action remakes aside from The Little Mermaid. Big-budget family films have more mᴀss appeal than a movie like Den of Thieves 2, and even many adult fans of the original who might’ve given the remake a pᴀss will inevitably wind up buying multiple tickets to accommodate children who don’t care about the movie’s artistic merit, only the adventure.

Remakes like How to Train Your Dragon are also generally safer bets because they come from established franchises, in this case, one with a 15-year foothold in the cultural zeitgeist. Numerous sequels, TV shows, and short films have helped cement its place, whereas Den of Thieves 2 was expected to earn a profit after giving the franchise seven years to lose momentum between the first film and the sequel. That made the sequel incredibly risky in ways that a family film like How to Train Your Dragon simply won’t have to worry about as much.