Two major releases drew enough attention to make this Father’s Day weekend a successful one.
The biggest winners are the executives at Universal Pictures. The live-action How to Train Your Dragon turned out to be a huge hit, drawing massive crowds to theaters. Latest estimates report an opening of $83.7 million.
This marks an absolute record for the franchise. Until now, the best opening belonged to the third animated film at $55 million. However, it’s worth noting that while the first animated How to Train Your Dragon had the weakest opening ($43.7 million), it ultimately became the highest-grossing installment in the U.S., being the only one to cross $200 million (final total: $217.9 million). A full victory for the live-action version will only be confirmed next week — if it’s not a frontloaded release.
After a string of flops, A24 finally has a hit. Although The Materialists received mixed reactions from American audiences, star power did the trick. Current data shows an opening of $12 million.
That makes it the third-best opening in A24’s history, behind only Civil War ($25.5 million) and Hereditary ($13.6 million). It has already outgrossed director Celine Song’s previous film, Past Lives, which finished with just under $11 million.
The third new entry in the top ten is The Life of Chuck. While Mike Flanagan has a loyal fan base on streaming platforms, it seems those fans aren’t showing up in theaters. The result after expanding distribution is a disappointing $2.1 million. His previous three wide-release films opened between $12–14 million.
Meanwhile, Lionsgate gets more bad news. After the underwhelming opening of Ballerina: From the World of John Wick, the film has now seen a 62% drop. With a CinemaScore of A-, it was expected that fans would recommend the film to others — but that hasn’t happened. Ballerina remains far behind all mainline John Wick films, with the exception of the original, which grossed only $43 million in the U.S.
Coming next Friday are three major premieres: the horror sequel 28 Years Later, Pixar’s animated film Elio, and the Rebel Wilson action-comedy Bride Hard.
