‘How to Train Your Dragon’ roars to No. 1 at box office with $83.7M debut

DreamWorks’ (NASDAQ:CMCSA) “How to Train Your Dragon” took flight at the domestic box office this weekend, delivering a better-than-forecast $83.7 million opening and easily claiming the top spot in North America, according to studio estimates from Comscore.

The animated adventure from the NBCUniversal (NASDAQ:CMCSA) unit opened in 4,356 theaters, generating a strong $19,215 per-location average and dominated the competition amid a packed field of summer releases. Its debut accounts for more than half of the weekend’s $146.5 million total from the top ten films.

Disney’s (NYSE:DIS) “Lilo & Stitch” remake, now in its fourth week, held on to second place with $15.5 million, bringing its cumulative total to $366.4 million, the highest among current releases. The film dropped 52% from the previous weekend as it began to lose momentum.

A24’s new adult drama “Materialists” opened solidly in third place, bringing in $12 million across 2,844 locations. Despite its more modest scale, it posted a strong per-theater average of $4,220, suggesting strong interest from arthouse and upscale audiences.

Rounding out the top five were “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” (NASDAQ:PARA) and “Ballerina”, earning $10.3 million and $9.4 million, respectively, in their fourth and second weekends. Tom Cruise’s latest stunt-filled entry has now grossed $166.3 million domestically.

Meanwhile, several titles experienced significant drop-offs. Sony’s “Karate Kid: Legends” (NYSE:SONY) fell 42% to $5 million in its third weekend, while Warner Bros.’ (NASDAQ:WBD) “Final Destination: Bloodlines” dipped 40%, earning $3.9 million in its fifth frame.

On the indie front, the thriller “Life of Chuck” expanded to over 1,000 screens and surged 855% from last week, taking in $2.1 million — a modest but noteworthy rise. However, Warner Bros.’ (NASDAQ:WBD) long-running “Sinners” crawled to a quiet ninth weekend finish, earning just $1.47 million.

Despite a few underperformers, the weekend box office showed signs of renewed strength heading into the heart of the summer movie season. With tentpoles like “Dragon” delivering franchise-sized numbers, studios will be hoping to sustain the momentum as more high-profile releases roll out in the coming weeks, according to Comscore.

Top 10 box office for the weekend of June 13–15 in the United States and Canada, along with their estimated weekend grosses:

1. How to Train Your Dragon (Universal) – $83,700,000
2. Lilo & Stitch (Disney) – $15,500,000
3. Materialists (A24) – $12,000,423
4. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Paramount) – $10,300,000
5. Ballerina (Lionsgate) – $9,400,000
6. Karate Kid: Legends (Sony) – $5,000,000
7. Final Destination: Bloodlines (Warner Bros.) – $3,900,000
8. The Phoenician Scheme (Focus Features) – $3,050,000
9. The Life of Chuck ((Neon)) – $2,144,250
10. Sinners (Warner Bros.) – $1,470,000

Top 10 Weekend Total: $146,464,673