How to Train Your Dragon soars to the top of the Father’s Day 2025 box office

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“This is getting out of hand! Now there are two of them!”

After the recent box office success, it’s clear that many film experts are now acknowledging that Universal and DreamWorks Animation can also earn significant profits from live-action adaptations of animated films. Previously, Disney held a near monopoly in this market, but not anymore – there are now two dominant players. The live-action version of “How to Train Your Dragon” made an impressive $83.7 million during its opening weekend, falling slightly short of the top five domestic openings for Disney remakes, but still setting a strong foundation.

This new animated Dragon film has almost doubled the initial box office earnings of the first Dragon movie ($43 million) and is slightly over half greater than the debut of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World ($55 million) in 2019. These original Dragon films hold a deeply sentimental value for moviegoers under 30, making Toothless and Hiccup beloved characters. Positioning this film as a heartfelt continuation of this cherished story was a strategy destined for box office success, particularly over the Father’s Day weekend.

Over the weekend, the top two movies in the U.S. were both live-action reboots of animated films directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. This is a promising trend for our culture. In second place was “Lilo & Stitch,” which saw a 52% drop to earn an additional $15.5 million. Its total domestic earnings now amount to $366.37 million, making it the second-highest opening movie over Memorial Day weekend, trailing only behind “Top Gun: Maverick.” At this point, it’s uncertain whether “Lilo & Stitch” will surpass “$A Minecraft Movie’s” $423.7 million domestic earnings to become the year’s biggest domestic box office hit thus far, but it’s currently the third largest movie of the year in this region.

Once more, it’s clear that viewers are eager to watch romantic films in cinemas, as demonstrated by the impressive $12 million opening weekend of Celine Song’s ‘Materialists’. This figure ranks third among the highest domestic opening weekends for an A24 production, surpassed only by the debuts of ‘Civil War’ and ‘Hereditary’.

Additionally, Materialists became the fifth A24 movie to debut with over $10 million in North America, joining War, Hereditary, Talk to Me, and Heretic. Notably, it surpassed the entire domestic run of Past Lives within three days, and even came close to matching the opening weeks of popular 2020s romantic comedies like No Hard Feelings and Ticket to Paradise. These are impressive figures, particularly since none of the film’s main actors have extensive experience as headliners in blockbuster movies from major franchises.

As a movie enthusiast, I can’t help but notice a palpable desire among cinema-goers for romantic comedies on the big screen. Take, for instance, the success of “Anyone But You,” which raked in nearly $90 million domestically. Or consider “Bridges Jones: Mad About The Boy,” still holding strong as the 13th highest-grossing movie worldwide this year, despite its North American release on Peacock. Even films like “Ticket to Paradise” and “The Lost City” outperformed blockbusters such as “Morbius” and “Moonfall” globally in 2022. The industry urgently needs more than just a couple of these rom-com releases per year; the market is clearly yearning for more titles of this genre.

In the past, romantic comedies were as common as horror movies are today at multiplexes all year round. For example, in 2007 alone, approximately 16 rom-coms had wide theatrical releases! We hope that Materialists encourages independent studios such as A24, Neon, Mubi, and others to take on more wide release romantic comedies. There’s definitely a market for this type of film that the major studios seem to be overlooking. In fact, if Materialists manages to earn 2.5 times its opening weekend box office, it would gross $30 million domestically, which would make it one of A24’s top 8 highest-grossing movies in North America. Lionsgate would certainly love to achieve that level of domestic success right now.

In a surprising turn of events, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” experienced the smallest drop in revenue among the top ten movies, decreasing by just 31%. This is remarkable given that it had to give up its IMAX screens for three consecutive weekends. Over the weekend, it made an additional $10.3 million, bringing its total earnings to $166.31 million. On the other hand, “Ballerina” ended the top five with earnings of $9.4 million, a concerning 62% drop from the previous week. Since its debut, this spin-off of “John Wick” has accumulated $41.83 million in revenue.

In the latest box office figures, The Karate Kid: Legends earned an additional $5 million (a decrease of 42%), bringing its total to $44.15 million. Simultaneously, the May 2025 holdover Final Destination: Bloodlines accumulated another $3.9 million, reaching a domestic total of $130.64 million. The Phoenician Scheme, on the other hand, grossed an additional $3.05 million in its second wide release weekend. Interestingly, its 51% drop was slightly better than Asteroid City’s 53%. To date, The Phoenician Scheme has amassed $12.7 million.

In this weekend, “The Life of Chuck” was shown in 1,072 theaters and earned $2.14 million. Not spectacular, but it also didn’t plummet following a less-than-impressive limited release debut last weekend. Moreover, its figures were fairly good for an independent film released during summertime in the 2020s. Comparatively, “Chuck’s” wide release was only 8% lower than “Thelma’s” initial performance and 37% higher than “Kinds of Kindness” when it expanded into 490 locations. However, after ten days, “The Life of Chuck” has only amassed $2.44 million, with Neon anticipating a slightly higher total after their marketing efforts. Despite this, the film is excellent, and its audience will find it eventually.

In its ninth week, the movie titled “Sinners” ranked tenth and made an additional $1.47 million (decreasing by 48% from the previous week), bringing its total domestic earnings to $275.48 million. Meanwhile, “Bring Her Back” saw a 60% drop and earned another $1.41 million, accumulating a domestic total of $17.65 million. Currently playing in 910 theaters, the film “Thunderbolts*” (likely nearing its final week of wide release) experienced a 50% decrease and earned another $1.2 million, bringing its domestic earnings to $188.75 million. The movie “Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye” dropped by 79% in its second week, making an additional $673,174, with a total domestic collection of $5.06 million.

In 771 cinemas, “The Unholy Trinity” earned a modest total of $559,610, equating to a $725 average per theater. On the other hand, the film “Tatami” debuted in a solitary cinema and garnered $16,200 on its opening day.

Over the weekend, the ten highest-earning films domestically made approximately $145 million in total. This is a decrease compared to the same time last weekend when the release of Inside Out 2 led to a massive debut for the movie. The weekend we’re discussing was the 24th weekend of the current year, and it fell slightly short of predictions compared to the 24th weekends in previous years, specifically June 13-15, 2025.

2018 saw the release of Incredibles 2, which had an extraordinary debut as the highest-grossing animated movie opening weekend of all time, accumulating $258 million in the top ten spots. In contrast, Cars 3, released in 2017, had a modest summer start for Pixar films, but still opened to $53 million. During the same period, Wonder Woman and All Eyez On Me both earned more than $26 million each. Compared to this, the 2025 weekend we’re discussing surpassed the 24th weekend of 2019, where Men in Black: International only managed a modest opening weekend at the Father’s Day marketplace.

The success of “How to Train Your Dragon” during its June opening weekend indicates a thriving film market, but it seems I’ve often suggested more films are needed. Unfortunately, Disney’s shift in distributing Pixar movies like “Soul,” “Luca,” and “Turning Red” to streaming platforms has affected a crucial aspect of the last 20 years’ June box office scene. The upcoming release of “Elio” will show if this trend is reversing. This weekend, both “Dragon” and “Materialists” performed well. Despite this weekend being weaker than typical for mid-June, it still marks a good total in raw numbers. Upcoming releases such as “F1,” “Jurassic World Rebirth,” and “Superman” are expected to add more excitement to the marketplace. Whether these upcoming box office hits will prompt me to quote more Nute Gunray remains to be seen.

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2025-06-16 23:45