How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World had the best opening of the franchise, and it's still doing well so far. Will it be able to make enough to pass the previous two movies, and close out the trilogy on top, now that Captain Marvel is here to push it off the top of the box office chart?
That may be too lofty a goal even for Toothless and Hiccup.
What we do know is that, before Captain Marvel's arrival, How to Train Your Dragon 3 managed to pass the $100 million milestone at the domestic North American box office. That's after opening two weeks ago on February 22, and placing #1 on the weekend box office charts for both of its weeks.
The Hidden World had the best opening of the three films so far, but it dipped enough in its second weekend that it looked like Madea might actually pass it at #1. That didn't happen, but now that competition is getting superheroic, you have to wonder where the film might go from here -- at least at the domestic box office.
Going into its third weekend, How to Train Your Dragon has made $104,966,125 at the domestic box office and an impressive $280,900,000 at the foreign box office for a current worldwide total of $385,866,125. That number, per Box Office Mojo, will go up by the end of the weekend, and should reach past $120 million domestic. How much further can it go from there?
The first How to Train Your Dragon movie came out in 2010 and ended its run with $217,581,231 at the domestic box office. The Hidden World is a long way away from that number. However, that movie "only" made $277,297,528 at the foreign box office, and the third movie has already made more than that overseas.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 came out in 2014 and made a total of $177,002,924 at the domestic box office and $444,534,595 overseas.
It seems like How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is likely to have a domestic box office closer to the second movie's number, below $200 million -- but that's a guess. Overseas? Does it have a chance of passing the second movie's $444.5M at the foreign box office alone? China, the second biggest box office market after North America, gave $65,100,000 to How to Train Your Dragon 2. The third movie opened at the start of March and has made $32,957,995 in China alone so far. However, the film got an early start at dozens of international markets, opening in January in many places. The Hidden World has already made the most money it's going to make in several countries.
So as exciting as it is to see How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World pass $100 million in the U.S./Canada, and prepare to pass $400 million worldwide, I suspect it won't have a chance to pass its predecessors to end the franchise at #1. That's OK, it was just hoped that the record opening would lead to a record close. It's still a big success.
The first movie had a worldwide combined total of $494,878,759. The second movie upped the combined total to $621,537,519. It doesn't seem like The Hidden World has the time or ability to top How to Train Your Dragon 2 from its current worldwide total of $385,866,125 (not counting this weekend, which should add about $20M domestic). But we'll see. I'm open to being as surprised by this movie as I was by the billion dollar success of Aquaman, the love China has for Green Book, and the continued power of The Upside.
Whatever happens from here, the Dragon franchise is ending strong. All three films earned "A" CinemaScores from polled moviegoers. All of the films have Rotten Tomatoes fresh scores above 90%, with the first film earning an Audience Score of 91% and the second and third films both currently at 89%. There was even early talk that How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World might finally have a chance at that animation Oscar, but we'll see. There's a lot of competition ahead.
Speaking of competition, this weekend belongs to Captain Marvel, which had a huge opening night and is tracking at $155 million to $160 million. Check out CinemaBlend's full weekend box office report on Sunday for those details. And keep up with everything headed to theaters in 2019 with our handy movie release date schedule.
