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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is on course to open to a better than expected $40 million and win the weekend box office race.
The new Paramount and eOne movie grossed $15.3 million on Friday, including $5.6 million in previews this week, with $4.1 million in Thursday evening shows and the rest from special screenings earlier in the week. The adventure epic expanded into a total of 3,855 locations Friday morning, including a plethora of premium-format screens.
Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, Dungeons & Dragons is based on Hasbro’s influential role-playing game and features a star-packed cast led by Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Chloe Coleman, Daisy Head and Hugh Grant. The film reunites Game Night helmers Goldstein and Daley, who directed from a script they wrote with Michael Gilio.
The movie enjoys stellar reviews and earned an A- CinemaScore.
Paramount and eOne, which is owned by Hasbro, co-produced and co-financed the big-budget fantasy pic, which cost a reported $150 million to make before marketing. The film also launches in more than 50 markets overseas, including the U.K., where eOne is distributing.
Dungeons & Dragons is based on the seminal tabletop game first published in 1974. The game went on to inspire books, TV shows, video games and movies — including New Line’s ill-fated 2000 pic — among other media. If all goes well, Honor Among Thieves will launch a new movie franchise for Paramount and eOne. And either way, it expands the overall D&D universe for Hasbro.
Adapting games (be they video games or tabletop games) for the big screen has always been tricky, but there have been notable success stories of late in the video game space, including Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and Sony’s Uncharted, which debuted last year to $44 million.
Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4, which debuted to a rousing $73.8 million last weekend, will fall to No. 2 in its sophomore outing with an estimated $29 million.
Paramount’s Scream VI and MGM’s Creed III will follow, while faith-based new offering His Only Son, from Angel Studios, looks to round out the top five with a $5 million opening from 1,920 theaters.
The weekend’s other new nationwide offering is Focus Features’ 2023 Sundance Film Festival entry A Thousand and One, which is on course to earn $1.7 million to $2 million from 926 locations.
April 1, 7:20 a.m. Updated with revised grosses.
This story was originally published March 31 at 7:43 a.m.
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