5 Reasons Why The How To Train Your Dragon Remake Soared At The Box Office

It was a big weekend at the box office and, once again, it was all thanks to a major family-friendly film — more specifically, a live-action remake of an animated favorite. DreamWorks and Universal's new take on "How to Train Your Dragon" hit theaters over the weekend and did very well for itself, proving that this whole live-action remake business still has a lot of gas left in the tank.

Director Dean DeBlois' "How to Train Your Dragon" topped the box office with an estimated $83.7 million domestically. Even better for Universal, the movie performed significantly stronger overseas, taking in $114.1 million for a $197.8 million global start. Even against a $150 million production budget and a sizable global marketing spend, that's a very good debut. It didn't hurt that competition was relatively light, with "Lilo & Stitch" slowing down a bit and last weekend's "John Wick" spin-off "Ballerina" falling off a cliff after an already not-so-great opening. Everything was working in this movie's favor.

So, what went right, exactly? How did Universal manage to successfully pull off this remake of the 15-year-old modern animated classic? And how did it stand out so successfully even amongst the crowded summer release calendar? We're going to look at the biggest reasons why "How to Train Your Dragon" ruled the box office on its opening weekend. Let's get into it.

Movies rarely reach this level of success without critics on their side. To that end, "How to Train Your Dragon" currently holds a 78% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While that's not nearly as high as its animated predecessor, that's good enough to generate some positive buzz. More importantly, though, general audiences seem to absolutely love the movie, with the audience rating sitting at a stellar 98%. It also earned an A CinemaScore. That's near-universal levels of love from the people actually getting off the couch to buy tickets.

/Film's Ethan Anderton called the "How to Train Your Dragon" remake the "motion picture equivalent of turning tacos into nachos," in his review, writing that it's "better" than most of Disney's live-action remakes, if still somewhat unnecessary in a creative sense. So, yes, there is some cynicism on the part of certain critics and cinephiles regarding these live-action remakes of animated favorites. Be that as it may, general audiences are eating this one up and, at the end of the day, that's who Universal is aiming to please. The fact that critics were largely okay with the film while moviegoers adored it is about as good a response as anyone could hope for with a venture like this.

One of the biggest factors contributing to the success of this remake in the early going is the fact that Universal was able to maintain the global audience for "How to Train Your Dragon" with the transition from animation to live-action. There is often a heavy focus on the U.S. so far as box office is concerned, but movies this big truly rely on the global theatrical marketplace to become successful. In this case, international audiences were the key.

"How to Train Your Dragon" had been tracking to make as much as $77 million ahead of its release. It blew past those projections in North America. More importantly, though, the previous animated movies made outsized amounts of money around the world, with 2019's "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" bringing in about 70% of its $540 million gross outside of the U.S. For the time being, the live-action "How to Train Your Dragon" isn't seeing such a dramatic split between its domestic and international ticket sales, but it's still a situation where audiences outside of North America very much care about the property in question.

Indeed, people around the world love Toothless and Hiccup alike. They showed up and proved that in a substantial way over the weekend. With the response being what it is, this movie is positioned to have decidedly long legs in the weeks to come as well. When all's said and done (but without getting too ahead of ourselves), we could well be looking at one of the year's biggest global hits here.

I'm not interested in opening up a debate on the topic, but one thing that has been made very clear about the "How to Train Your Dragon" remake is that Dean DeBlois, who also co-directed the original film, stayed very faithful to the animated classic ... so much so that some might question why anyone would bother to spend $150 million remaking something that is already so beloved. At the end of the day, though, the turnout for this remake on opening weekend just about says it all. People love the original movie, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Yes, there are some differences between the animated and live-action versions of "How to Train Your Dragon," but they're not substantial. Universal greenlit this movie because it's part of a cherished billion-dollar franchise and, well, there was money to be made from it. DeBlois, meanwhile, directed it because he clearly wanted to ensure that it stayed true to the movie he made 15 years ago. While there is certainly a conversation to be had about the remake's artistic merits, it's obvious audiences still love this story and its characters. It's also clear that staying true to what worked before and not doing something too different was the right call, at least from a dollars and cents POV.

One thing that has proven itself true time and time again over the last handful of years is the value of a crowd-pleasing family film at the box office. 2025 has been massive in this regard, with "How to Train Your Dragon" serving as just the latest example. "A Minecraft Movie" also had one of the biggest openings for a Hollywood movie this year and has since made more than $950 million worldwide, the largest total for any American movie in 2025. "Lilo & Stitch" (another live-action remake of an animated favorite) had a similarly monster-sized opening and has since grossed more than $850 million globally. It will very likely join the $1 billion club.

These are far from the only examples that spring to mind, with movies like "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish," "Wonka," and, of course Pixar's monster hit "Inside Out 2," having also done boffo business. Family movies, when executed correctly, can be a gold mine right now, partly thanks to the reduced competition in that area but also because of volume. After all, when entire families head to the theater, that means multiple tickets are being bought at once for a weekend outing, rather than a single ticket at a time. Where superhero movies were once the odds-on favorites to become automatic blockbusters in the 2010s, it appears family movies that successfully cast the widest possible net have since taken their place.

It's no secret that Disney has made billions of dollars over the last 15 years by releasing live-action remakes of its classic animated films. That doesn't always pan out, with "Snow White" having become one of the biggest misfires of 2025 thus far. That said, the resounding success of "Lilo & Stitch," as well as 2024's "Mufasa: The Lion King," prove that's more of an exception rather than the rule.

More to the point, Universal and DreamWorks decided that Disney wasn't the only studio that could get in on what has proved to be a very good business model. "How to Train Your Dragon" is a treasured property that now has multiple generations of fans to its name (with theme parks, animated shows, and merchandise galore having accompanied the movies). Based on Disney's playbook, that makes it a strong choice for a live-action remake, and the early numbers suggest that was a good decision. There's a reason a live-action "How to Train Your Dragon 2" is already firmly in the works.

Universal was rightfully confident about what it had, which means it now has a possible avenue for another popular movie trilogy. Success is more elusive at the box office than it has ever been. That's why this movie exists and why it will get a follow-up. Really, the only thing that's surprising about all this is the fact that it took so long for another major Hollywood player to do what Disney had done so successfully for more than a decade.

"How to Train Your Dragon" is in theaters now.