Paramount and eOne’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves has made $5.6M in previews. That’s not all from Thursday showtimes (which began at 3PM), but includes advance Amazon sneaks among other pre-screenings. Before Thursday, we’re told Dungeons & Dragons made $1.5M. While the feature take of the popular role-playing game has been hot in word of mouth (92% on Rotten Tomatoes) and with critics (89% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), tracking has sat on the movie with a $30M-$40M domestic opening projection for the $150M production (covered 50% by eOne). Paramount believed in this movie so much, they screened it extensively and brought it to SXSW where the pic made its world premiere and was the fest’s opening night title. The hope by all is that the pic overindexes this weekend, however, it might be a slow burn for the film; it’s the only new live-action PG-13 fanboy choice heading into the Easter frame next weekend.
D&D gains a majority of the premium venues from Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4 this weekend. That movie had a hot week with $94.6M at 3,855 theaters. If D&D underdelivers, does John Wick 4 claim No. 1? Even if the Keanu Reeves R-rated action pic tumbles 60%, it will see a $30M opening.
The John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein directed/written D&D is also hitting 58 offshore territories including the UK (distributed by eOne), Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Spain, with an outlook of $25M+. At the high-end, it’s a hopeful $65M global start.
On the upside, D&D‘s $4.1M Thursday is ahead of its comp Uncharted‘s Thursday previews of $3.7M, also ahead of spring hit Kong: Skull Island ($3.7M), and Mad Max: Fury Road ($3.7M) and just under the $4.3M Thursday of Paramount’s surprise 2018 genre spring hit, A Quiet Place which flew to a $50.2M opening and legged out to $188M stateside, $340M WW birthing a franchise. Uncharted is a good comp here to D&D. That pic was based on a popular Sony Playstation videogame and opened to $44M, finaled at $148M stateside, $401.7M WW.
Top five films on Thursday:
1 John Wick Chapter 4 (LG) 3,855 theaters, Thu $3.8M (-15% from Wednesday) Wk $94.6M/Wk 1
2 Scream VI (Par) 3,355 theaters, Thu $710 (-3%), Wk $11.4M/Total $92.9M/Wk 3
3 Creed III (MGM/UAR) 3207 theaters, Thu $665K, Wk $11M, Total $143.5M/Wk 4
4 Shazam Fury of the Gods (NL) 4071 theaters, Thu $580K (-14%), Wk $12.2M/Total $48.8M/Wk 2
5 Dasara (CGX) 510 theaters, Thu $272K (-59%), Wk $939K/Wk 1
The Srikanth Odhela directed and written Indian feature is set against the backdrop of the Singareni coal mines near Godavarikhani of Telangana. Watch the trailer below: