This weekend will see an interesting battle between fantasy and gun-fu, as Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is rolling out in theaters worldwide. After pulling in a good $5.6M in previews at the domestic box office, the film is trying its luck on potentially dethroning last weekend’s big hit, John Wick Chapter 4. As of now, the film is eyeing an opening between $30M to potentially $40M but tomorrow’s numbers will give us a clearer picture.
John Wick 4 is heading towards a stronghold in its sophomore weekend with around $36M expected. Though given its popularity it might even go higher as well. The only issue for Dungeons & Dragons lies in the fact that it has quite a steep $150M production window. So, it will have to bank on good word-of-mouth to keep it going as the summer box office is just around the corner with quite a line-up.
March generally has been a strong month with some break-out releases on small to medium budgets like Creed 3, Scream 6, and John Wick 4. While Shazam Fury of the Gods floundered and didn’t even have a big opening like Ant-Man 3, it’s great to see some strong showings after the pandemic years making many wonder what the future holds for theatrical experiences.
If the Chris Pine project manages to pull in some strong word-of-mouth and heads to the $40M opening, it might have a chance to balance its softer opening throughout the coming weeks. But, interestingly, it’s not too different from Shazam: Fury of the Gods which had a smaller budget of $100M but opened to $30M. Perhaps it’s not quite superhero fatigue but blockbuster fatigue in the off-season.
Source: Variety
