The box office is a battlefield, and this past weekend, a familiar dragon soared above the competition, breathing new fire into a contentious Hollywood trend. The live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon didn’t just debut at number one; it roared, posting an estimated $83.7 million opening that outperformed even the most optimistic projections. This staggering success serves as the centerpiece of a fascinating weekend in cinema, one that tells a larger story about studio strategy, audience appetite, and the complicated dance between art and commerce.
As we dissect the weekend’s numbers, from Disney’s continued remake dominance with Lilo and Stitch to A24’s risky bet on Materialists and the ongoing saga of Mission: Impossible, one thing becomes clear: the audience has spoken with their wallets. But what exactly are they saying? Let’s dive deep into the top 10, analyze the trends, and explore what this weekend means for the future of the movies we love.
A Fiery Debut: How to Train Your Dragon by the Numbers
The immediate takeaway from the weekend is the sheer power of the How to Train Your Dragon brand. The $83.7 million domestic opening is not just a win; it’s a statement. Here’s how it stacks up:
- Fourth Best Opening of the Year: It lands comfortably ahead of major titles like Thunderbolts (by about $10 million) and just behind the formidable Captain America: Brave New World (by about $5 million).
- A Franchise Best: This live-action debut easily surpassed the opening weekends of all its animated predecessors, even when adjusted for inflation. The original 2010 film opened to an inflation-adjusted $64.4 million, with its sequels seeing incremental gains. This remake blew them all out of the water.
- Smart Budgeting: With a reported production budget of around $150 million, significantly less than the $250 million-plus price tags of some other summer blockbusters, the film is already on a clear path to profitability.
Adding to its financial prowess is a strong audience reception. The film scored an “A” CinemaScore, a coveted grade that indicates excellent word-of-mouth potential. This is crucial for long-term success, especially with another major family film, Pixar’s Elio, opening next weekend. The question now is whether these two titans can coexist or if one will cannibalize the other’s audience. For now, however, Universal Pictures is celebrating a well-executed launch that has set the film up for a lucrative run.
The Remake Debate: Answering the “Why?” with Greenbacks
For months, online discourse has been filled with fans questioning the necessity of a live-action How to Train Your Dragon. The 2010 animated original is widely considered a modern classic, a perfect blend of heart, humor, and breathtaking animation. Why remake something so beloved? The source of the studio’s motivation can be found in a curious franchise trend.
While each animated How to Train Your Dragon film opened bigger than the last, a rare and impressive feat, their final domestic grosses told a different story: each sequel ultimately earned less than the one before it. This pattern of diminishing returns, despite strong openings, signaled to the studio that while the brand was strong, the animated format might have hit its ceiling.
The turn to live-action wasn’t just a creative whim; it was a calculated business decision. Studios are not charities; they are businesses that respond to market data. And the data, both this weekend and throughout the summer, is screaming one thing loud and clear: audiences show up for live-action remakes. Lilo and Stitch is currently one of the highest-grossing movies of the summer, and How to Train Your Dragon is on a trajectory to join it.
While cinephiles and purists may lament the creative implications, the commerce part of the art-commerce equation will always have a powerful voice in studio boardrooms. As long as audiences continue to reward these remakes with blockbuster ticket sales, we can expect the production line to keep running.
The Remake Ripple Effect: Lilo & Stitch’s Enduring Power
Speaking of remake success, Disney’s Lilo and Stitch continues its impressive run, landing in second place with
15.5million∗∗initsfourthweekend.Withadomestictotalnowatamassive∗∗15.5 million** in its fourth weekend. With a domestic total now at a massive **15.5million∗∗initsfourthweekend.Withadomestictotalnowatamassive∗∗
366 million, it has become the third highest-grossing Disney live-action remake of all time, surpassing The Jungle Book and Aladdin.
However, its legs are showing some signs of wear. Despite its family-friendly appeal during the summer months, its week-to-week drops have been steady rather than spectacular. In its race against A Minecraft Movie to become the highest-grossing film of the year, Lilo and Stitch has begun to lose ground. Minecraft had the advantage of viral memes and a TikTok trend that fueled its longevity, and after a brief period where Lilo and Stitch caught up, the gap is once again widening.
Nonetheless, with a more modest production budget, Lilo and Stitch is an undeniable financial juggernaut for Disney, further cementing the live-action remake strategy as a cornerstone of its modern business model.
The A24 Paradox: ‘Materialists’ and the Art of the Sell
In stark contrast to the IP-driven blockbusters at the top, A24’s Materialists debuted in third place with a very strong **
12million∗∗.Fortheindiedarlingdistributor,thismarkstheirthird−bestopeningweekendever,behindonlytheexplosive∗CivilWar∗(12 million**. For the indie darling distributor, this marks their third-best opening weekend ever, behind only the explosive *Civil War* (12million∗∗.Fortheindiedarlingdistributor,thismarkstheirthird−bestopeningweekendever,behindonlytheexplosive∗CivilWar∗(
25.7 million) and the chilling Hereditary ($13.5 million). Director Celine Song’s follow-up to Past Lives was marketed aggressively as a mainstream-friendly romantic comedy, and the strategy clearly worked to get people into theaters.
However, a deeper look reveals a potential risk to A24’s carefully cultivated brand. The film received a “B-” CinemaScore. For a major studio, this is a passable-to-disappointing grade; for a film marketed as a rom-com, it suggests a significant disconnect between audience expectations and the actual film. This is part of a recurring pattern for A24’s wide releases:
- Civil War: B-
- Hereditary: D+
- The Witch: C-
- The Green Knight: C+
Of their top 10 biggest openings, only a few films, like Talk to Me (B+) and Warfare (A-), received scores indicating widespread audience satisfaction. A24’s strategy appears to be marketing their often arthouse-adjacent films within familiar genre frameworks (horror, rom-com, war) to maximize opening weekend appeal. While this is a savvy business move in the short term, it runs the risk of eroding audience trust. If moviegoers repeatedly feel misled by marketing, they may eventually stop trusting the A24 label altogether, which could harm the very filmmakers the studio aims to champion. For now, Materialists is a win, but its second-weekend performance will be a crucial test of its word-of-mouth.
Mission: Impossible – A Corrected Reckoning and the Barbenheimer Effect
Tom Cruise’s latest outing, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, held strong in its fourth weekend, dropping only 31% to earn another
10.3million∗∗.Itsdomestictotalnowstandsatahealthy∗∗10.3 million**. Its domestic total now stands at a healthy **10.3million∗∗.Itsdomestictotalnowstandsatahealthy∗∗
166.3 million.
As the film’s run continues, the evidence supporting the “Barbenheimer effect” on its predecessor, Dead Reckoning, grows stronger. Charting the two films’ performances side-by-side reveals that their box office tracks begin to diverge precisely around the point where Barbie and Oppenheimer entered the market last year. The Final Reckoning, free from such historic competition, is consistently tracking ahead, widening the gap week after week.
On a lighter note, a correction is in order regarding last week’s profitability analysis. A simple but significant math error overstated the film’s total costs. The correct calculation is a
400millionbudget∗∗plusa∗∗400 million budget** plus a **400millionbudget∗∗plusa∗∗
150 million marketing spend, for a total of $550 million (not $650 million). With a current estimated global net return of
222.2millionfromthetheatricalwindow,thefilmisapproximately∗∗222.2 million from the theatrical window, the film is approximately **222.2millionfromthetheatricalwindow,thefilmisapproximately∗∗
327.7 million** away from its break-even point. While the revised number is less catastrophic, the conclusion remains the same: The Final Reckoning is still facing a substantial financial loss within its theatrical run, a tough pill to swallow for such a massive franchise.
The Top 10 Tussle: Ballerinas, Legends, and Award Hopefuls
Rounding out the rest of the top ten were several other compelling stories:
- Ballerina’s Steep Drop: The John Wick spin-off fell hard from second to fifth place with a steep 62% drop, earning $9.4 million for a $41.8 million total. This is a surprisingly sharp decline for a film with decent reviews, suggesting word-of-mouth may not have been as strong as initially believed.
- Karate Kid: Legends and Final Destination: Bloodlines showed decent holds, earning $5 million and $3.9 million, respectively.
- The Life of Chuck’s Oscar Challenge: Debuting at number nine with $2.1 million in its wide release is the Neon-distributed The Life of Chuck. This film carries the prestigious honor of being the People’s Choice Award winner from the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). This award has an astonishing track record; the previous nine winners all went on to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, including winners like Green Book and Nomadland.
However, The Life of Chuck may be the film to break this decade-long streak. Unlike its predecessors, which were released during the traditional awards season, Chuck is a summer release with good, but not rapturous, critical reception. It seems unlikely to maintain momentum until the end-of-the-year awards push, proving that even the most reliable patterns are made to be broken.
Beyond the Big Screen: Streaming Dominance and Viewer Trends
The battle for our attention continues on the small screen, with recent streaming data revealing fascinating trends in viewership.
Netflix’s Surprising Hits: For the week of June 2nd, the number one program worldwide on Netflix was not a star-studded blockbuster but Tyler Perry’s Straw, which debuted to an enormous 25.28 million views. In a shocking twist, this modest film actually garnered more views in its first few days than The Electric State, Netflix’s most expensive movie ever produced. It’s a clear sign that Netflix’s investment in the prolific Perry is paying significant dividends.
Nielsen’s Nuanced Numbers: Nielsen’s domestic data (which is delayed by a month) for the week of May 12th crowned a new champion. On the week of its series finale, Andor became the most-watched streaming show in the United States with 15.5 million hours viewed, finally toppling the perennial titan Bluey. This is a monumental achievement for the critically acclaimed Star Wars series.
The Star Wars Streaming Saga: With Andor‘s run complete, we can take stock of how Disney+’s live-action Star Wars shows have performed. The Mandalorian remains the undisputed king, with a massive viewership total across its seasons. Andor comes in a strong second, a success story given its quality and critical reception. However, the viewership for shows like The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka represents a more mixed bag, with a significant drop-off for newer series like The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew. The data suggests that while the Star Wars brand is powerful, it is not a guarantee of consistent, Mandalorian-level success.
The Last of Us: A Tale of Two Seasons: A fascinating narrative is unfolding with HBO’s The Last of Us. While Season 2 started strong, even outperforming Season 1 in its second week, viewership has seen a precipitous decline since. A major plot event in the second episode is the likely culprit for turning some viewers away, but the drop in weeks three and four has been substantial. This trend suggests the show’s second season, while still popular, may not reach the same universal viewership heights as its predecessor.
Conclusion: What’s Next on the Horizon?
This weekend was a microcosm of modern Hollywood. The resounding success of How to Train Your Dragon proves that the live-action remake is a financially sound, if creatively debated, formula that studios will continue to lean on. At the same time, the strong debut of an original film like Materialists and the critical and viewership triumph of a prestige series like Andor show that there is still a powerful appetite for bold, new storytelling.
The coming weeks will only add more fuel to the fire. Pixar’s Elio will test the family market’s capacity for two blockbusters, while the long-awaited 28 Years Later aims to reignite a beloved horror franchise. As audiences, we hold the ultimate power, and with every ticket we buy, we cast a vote for the kinds of movies we want to see. This weekend, the vote was for dragons, but the cinematic landscape is vast, and the next great story is always just on the horizon.