Friday Box Office: ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Soars to $36M as ‘Materialists’ Nabs Solid $5M and ‘Ballerina’ Drops 78%
Universal’s first crack at a “live action remake of a DreamWorks toon” might top $85 million for the weekend, as ‘Sinners’ defies ‘Gravity’ but ‘Life of Chuck’ struggles.
In what can’t help but serve as a comment on a kind of arrested development nostalgia currently dominating mainstream (at least theatrical) pop culture, the top two movies of the weekend are live-action remakes of animated films. After a few weeks led by Disney’s remake of Chris Sanders’s Lilo & Stitch, the domestic and global box office is now being dominated by Universal’s remake of… Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois’s How to Train Your Dragon. Once again, a property that originally gained fortune and glory by being comparatively new and different from its peers is now exceptionally popular because it is established and has already been somewhat presold.
I’ve been complaining about this at least since 2014, when discussing the nine-year-later return of Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, and again in 2016 when talking about the 15-year-later return of Vin Diesel’s Xander Cage. Both franchises began in 2002 as newer, more of-the-moment relevant alternatives to the James Bond series. Considering this summer is dominated by the likes of Lilo & Stitch, Fantastic Four, I Know What You Did Last Summer, 28 Years Later, Freakier Friday and Superman (which at least looks somewhat different from previous Superman franchises), I don’t expect anything to change anytime soon. However, what I feared in 2014 has, to a certain extent, come to pass.
Hey, I promise on the “welcome page” that you can learn about the most significant trends in Hollywood years before they become conventional wisdom, right?
At least Chris Sanders’s excellent adaptation of Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot pulled superlative reviews and $340 million worldwide. At least Disney just announced another original Pixar flick for summer 2027, meaning next week’s Elio is not burdened with the fate of the non-sequel Disney toon. And even Laika is still theoretically making more theatrical features, even if I’m still waiting on Wildwood. Moreover, 2010s nostalgia is preferable to 1980s or 1990s nostalgia-skewing revivals, revamps, or remakes, if only because the target demographics in play are (in some cases) still actual children. I’m a hypocrite, but I’ll be happy to check out the upcoming late-October reissue of ParaNorman.