Can a dragon save the box office? After a few weeks of underperforming titles, it looks like How To Train Your Dragon 3 may actually stay in line with its $40 Million+ tracking after an impressive start in Thursday night previews.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World grossed $3 million in Thursday night previews at 3,200 theaters. The film has already proven to be a hit overseas with a stellar gross of $185 million so far which means the film is already a winner but it should add robust numbers from its stateside performance as well.
The latest entry from the beloved franchise is 91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes which bodes well as it could attract adults and children alike. It also made $2.5 million in paid previews from its Fandango partnership, a number that beats the early preview cash made by Sony/Amazon’s preview team-up for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. Hidden World expands even further today at 4,259 locations.
What makes the preview number encouraging is that the target audience isn’t on a break from school so the early interest suggests that the film should surge higher today and especially on Saturday. Hidden World‘s Thursday figure twice bests the $1.5 million Thursday earned recently by Warner Bros.’ The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part which went on to do $34.1 million in its opening weekend. Hidden World also beats the preview box office of The Lego Batman Movie ($2.2 million), How to Train Your Dragon 2 ($2 million), Zootopia ($1.7 million) and The Boss Baby ($1.5 million).
Fighting With My Family, the well-received WWE feature about the rise of Norwich, UK female wrestler Paige, opened in limited release last week but expanded last night and scored $450,000. The film will be in 2,711 locations today and is tracking at $8-10 million for the weekend. The film is 93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and if it can turn those good reviews into solid word of mouth, the film may continue to play well in the weeks ahead (It already has an impressive “A” CinemaScore). The $450,000 Thursday expansion is far more than the $175,000 that Fox’s Eddie the Eagle did in previews three years ago. Like Fighting With My Family, Eddie the Eagle was also the Sundance Film Festival secret screening.
