Box Office: 'How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World' Flies High
With no other big releases on Oscar weekend, "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" easily soared to the top of the box office.
The final film in the animated trilogy opened with $55.5 million, the best debut for the franchise. The first film, "How to Train Your Dragon" opened at the domestic box office with $43.7 million and "How to Train Your Dragon 2" debuted with $49.4 million.
"How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" is now the biggest opening weekend of he year, beating out "Glass," which bowed with $40 million.
Helped by early Fandango screenings, the third film has brought in $58 million at the domestic box office. It's also earned an impressive $216 million worldwide since January. It opens in China on March 1.
Last weekend’s champ, "Alita: Battle Angel," dropped to second place, adding another $12 million for a domestic haul of $60 million. That's a 58% decline from its opening weekend. The film, which reportedly cost $170 million, is doing better overseas: Its international take so far is $200 million. Fox insiders told Variety it'll need to earn $350 million to break even, but execs at rival studios put the number closer to $500 million.
In third place was "The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part," which is also underperforming. It's so far earned $136 million worldwide and $83.6 domestically. By its third weekend, the first film had earned $183 million at the domestic box office.
Dwayne Johnson’s wrestling drama "Fighting With My Family," which opened in limited release last weekend, expanded to 2,500 screens. It took in $8 million for fourth place. It stars Florence Pugh in the true story of the daughter of two wrestlers who decides to enter the ring herself.
Playing at just 853 theaters, the Tim Tebow-produced sports drama "Run the Race" debuted in 10th place with $2.3 million.
Here are the top 10 estimates for February 22-24, 2019
1. "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World," $55,527,000
2. "Alita: Battle Angel," $12,000,000
3. "The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, "$10,015,000
4. "Fighting with My Family," $8,012,000
5. "Isn’t It Romantic," $7,510,000
6. "What Men Want," $5,200,000
7. "Happy Death Day 2U," $4,988,000
8. "Cold Pursuit," $3,300,000
9. "The Upside," $3,210,000
10. "Run the Race," $2,273,050
[Via Variety]