This March has been one of the best months for releases outside of summer, with three highly successful sequels setting new records for their respective franchises. “Dungeon & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” now kicks off its own franchise by adapting the popular role-playing video game. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.
Paramount is probably hoping that younger moviegoers won’t be aware of the 2000 “Dungeon & Dragons” movie that bombed very badly, but “Dungeon & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” has a much stronger cast that includes Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page from “Bridgerton,” Hugh Grant, Justice Smith (“Jurassic World: Dominion”) and Sophie Lillis (“It”).
While Rodriguez continues to appear in the popular “Fast & Furious” movies, it’s been some time since Pine has starred in a major theatrical release, going back to the trio of “Star Trek” movies, although he also had a key role in Warner Bros’ “Wonder Woman” and its sequel, the latter hobbled by the pandemic and being released simultaneously on HBO Max. Although Pine provided his voice as one of the Peter Parkers in the Oscar-winning animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse,” that was really his biggest box office hit in a while. His key role in Olivia Wilde‘s thriller “Don’t Worry Darling” last year suffered from all the tabloid gossip around the movie. Still, it ended up grossing $86.6 million, split between domestic and international.
For Page, who has a smaller role in “Dungeons & Dragons,” it’s really his first prominent theatrical film since starring on the hit Netflix period drama, although Smith and Lillis have starred in their fair share of studio releases, as well.
Reviews for “Dungeons & Dragons” have been predominantly positive since it debuted at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this month, and Paramount has been giving the movie a variety of sneak previews over the past couple weeks to help generate buzz. It has also managed to hijack the IMAX screens from “John Wick,” which is good, because it’s very much a big-screen movie. Those aforementioned previews are likely to be rolled into the Friday box office, elevating that substantially.
SEE Box office preview: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ should give movie theaters another much-needed bump
“Dungeons & Dragons” should be good for $25 to 30 million this weekend, but considering how well “John Wick: Chapter 4” did this past weekend, it stands a good chance at remaining #1 with upwards of $30 million.
There are other movies out this weekend, including Angel Studios’ “His Only Son,” a faith-based dramatic epic about Abraham and Isaac from the studio that helped bring the streaming series “The Chosen” to theaters, along with Fathom Events. Angel plans on opening this original film in 1,800 theaters this weekend, which might allow it to make a play for the top five, although it’s likely to be in the same general $4 to 5 million ballpark as “Scream VI,” “Creed III” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods.”
Focus Features is releasing the Sundance Grand Jury prize-winning “A Thousand and One” from filmmaker A.V. Rockwell that follows a troubled young mother (Teyana Taylor from “Coming 2 America”) who kidnaps her own son Terry out of the New York City foster care system. The movie follows the duo over the course of 15 years, while also showing the evolution of Harlem due to gentrification. It’s opening in roughly 800 theaters, but we’ll have to see if Sundance buzz is enough to help a movie with no name stars and a tougher subject matter. It should be good for a few million, which might be enough to get it into the top 10 this weekend, although we’ll have to see if the film’s buzz and strong reviews – currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes! – help it find an audience.
Also opening in an unknown number of theaters, but probably limited, is director Tim Bogart‘s “Spinning Gold,” a biopic about his father Neil Bogart, founder of Casablanca Records, the ’70s record label which helped shine a spotlight and create stars out of Donna Summer, the Village People, rockers Kiss, and many more. Jeremy Jordan from “Supergirl” plays Bogart, and the movie is full of famous recording stars like Jason Derulo, Wiz Khalifa, and others, playing Bogart’s biggest name acts.
Check back on Sunday to see how the above movies fared at the box office and how you did in the box office prediction game.
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions
