Boasting a near-perfect audience score, Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon flew to an impressive $11.1 million in previews.
That includes $8.6 million from regular Thursday previews and another $2.5 million in early access screenings hosted Wednesday. Combined, it’s one of the best showings of the year to date.
The family film is easily headed for a first-finish at the June 13-15 box office with a projected debut of $75 million, although that number could climb higher based on preview grosses and first reactions. As of Friday morning, the pic boasted a 99 audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Its critics score is 77 percent.
How to Train You Dragon will steal the box office crown from Disney’s smash hit live-action Lilo & Stitch, which flew past the $800 million mark at the global box office earlier this week after topping th chart for three consecutive weekends and setting numerous records.
This is the first time that Universal and DWA are borrowing a page from the Disney playbook and turning one of its animated films into a live-action title.
Filmmaker and How to Train Your Dragon franchise regular Dean DeBlois returned to direct the remake of the first 2010 film, which spawned two more movies and other media properties. To date, the marquee franchise about a young Viking boy named Hiccup who goes behind his father’s back and befriends a feared Night Fury dragon named Toothless has generated more than $1.6 billion in global box office ticket sales.
How to Train Your Dragon has a huge advantage in taking over the Imax screens that have belonged to Tom Cruise-starrer Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning for three weekends (Both pics used Imax cameras to shoot certain sequences). Dragon is also taking over numerous other large-format screen this weekend.
Overseas, it opens this weekend in its first 53 markets.
Gerard Butler, who voiced Hiccup’s father and ruler of his village in the previous films, returns for the live-action rendering, while Mason Thames (The Black Phone, For All Mankind) plays Hiccup.
The film also stars Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2), Gabriel Howell (Bodies), Bronwyn James (Wicked), Harry Trevaldwyn (Smothered), Ruth Codd (The Midnight Club), BAFTA nominee Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Murray McArthur (Game of Thrones).
The How To Train Your Dragon film franchise is inspired by Cressida Cowell’s bestselling book series.
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