Looks like those test screenings did the trick. Paramount knew it had a winner on its hands with Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves but also knew that selling this to the masses was an uphill battle. After all, at first glance, most would assume that this was a movie strictly for fans and players of the D&D game and despite gaining more mainstream notoriety thanks to Jason Momoa and Stranger Things, it’s just not that mainstream.
But the D&D film is a four-quadrant crowd-pleaser, aimed at people of all ages and backgrounds, so Paramount unveiled it in multiple advanced screenings to build word of mouth. A similar approach helped sell Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Aquaman to great success — Aquaman made over $1 billion and Jumanji came up just shy of that.
Going into the weekend, D&D was given a wide projected opening of $30-$40 million, as it wasn’t clear whether the word of mouth would work, but it did. D&D came in toward the top of its projections with $38.5M.
But how good is it? Very. Exiting audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore, with those reporting to PostTrak gave it 4½ stars out of five and a 90% positive. It has a 91% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 93% audience score.
D&D boasts an ensemble cast of recognizable faces, although none of them are necessarily box office draws. Chris Pine fronts as the Bard, with Michelle Rodriguez as the Barbarian, Regé-Jean Page as the Paladin, Justice Smith as the Wizard, Sophia Lillis as the Druid, and Hugh Grant as the Rogue. Daisy Head also stars as the film’s main antagonist, Sofina the Red Wizard.
Had D&D come in lower in its projections, it would be easy to point toward that being due to the fact that most multiplexes gave over its large-format screens (IMAX, Dolby, etc.) to it and scooted John Wick: Chapter 4 to regular screens. But the fact that it earned more than $10M more than John Wick, means that a whole lot of people just checked it out on all formats.
In its second weekend, John Wick 4 slipped 62%, but considering its gigantic opening, that’s not bad. As I mentioned last weekend, this was the only movie to even earn in the double digits and it repeated that, taking in an additional $28.2M.
It’s going to be a fairly slow April, so expect D&D and John Wick 4 to continue to thrive, as both have proven to be appealing to audiences.
Scream VI came in at #3.
The #4 movie was another faith-based picture, His Only Son. As is typical, this movie is aimed at a specific niche audience, which is underserved by the entertainment industry as a whole, so they loved it. Its RT audience score is 95%. There is no critical score because… I guess critics didn’t want to waste their time on another technically crummy faith-based film, despite the winning reception from its target audience.
Via PostTrak, audiences gave His Only Son a 93% score and the film took in $5.3M.
Rounding out the Top Five was Creed III.
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- Dungeons & Dragons (Paramount) – 3-day $38.5M/Wk 1
- John Wick Chapter 4 (Lionsgate) – 3-day $28.2M/ Total $122.8M/Wk 2
- Scream VI (Paramount) – 3-day $5.3M/ Total $98.2M/Wk 4
- His Only Son (Angel) – 3-day $5.3M/Wk 1
- Creed III (MGM) – 3-day $5M/ Total $148.5M/Wk 5
Yes, that means that in its third weekend of release, Warner Bros. latest DC dud, Shazam!: Fury of the Gods has fallen completely out of the Top Five, earning just $4.7M and landing at #6. Though the critical response wasn’t great (51% on RT) its audience responses were decent.
So its dismal failure is a bit of a shock simply because this simply wasn’t a terrible film. It just looks as though no one cares about the DCEU anymore (plus there is the constant buzz about superhero fatigue overall) which doesn’t bode well for the upcoming The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
It should be noted that when Fury of the Gods debuted, it dethroned Scream VI which was #1 the week prior, but the latter is still hanging in at #3, while Fury of the Gods is plummeting fast.
But as I said, it’s going to be a slow-ish April, so there is the possibility that this could slip back into the Top Five as some of the others could slip further.
But next weekend, things won’t slow down as The Super Mario Bros. Movie arrives. This is eyed as one of this year’s top contenders to potentially make over $1B. But because April is fairly light, Mario could hold up pretty well until May 3, when Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3. Then again, with potential superhero fatigue kicking in, that flick may wind up underperforming.
Mario will take #1 easily, with the added boost that it will take over those premium screens, just as D&D took them from John Wick this weekend, and it’s doubtful that any of the upcoming films will merit them, so it will likely remain on the larger screens for weeks.
There will be some smaller releases this month including The Pope’s Exorcist, Renfield, Evil Dead Rise, and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, all of which have the potential to do well, thanks to little competition.
Did you check out Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves? What did you think? What are you looking forward to seeing in April?
