“Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” an adaptation of the popular role-playing game, ignited at the international box office with $33 million from 60 markets.
Paramount and eOne’s film also opened in North America with $38.5 million, bringing its global tally to $71 million. It’s a good start, especially considering Hollywood’s track record in adapting games for the big screen. But “Dungeons and Dragons” needs to keep playing in theaters to justify its $150 million price tag before marketing.
Overseas audiences will be key to the success of “D&D.” The film, directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley and starring Chris Pine and Regé-Jean Page, enjoyed the biggest start in China with $5 million, followed by the U.K. with $4.3 million, Mexico with $2.4 million, Australia with $2.4 million, and Germany with $2 million.
Solid reviews and positive word-of-mouth should work in favor of “Dungeons and Dragons,” which centers on a charming thief (Pine) and a band of unlikely adventurers (Michelle Rodriguez and Page among them) who undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic. But their mission goes dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.
“At a cost of $150 million, foreign is where ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ has to excel to be profitable and become a series,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research.
Despite a better-than-expected start for “Honor Among Thieves,” Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4” narrowly stayed on top of international box office charts with $35 million from 75 territories.
After two weeks on the big screen, the latest action sequel, starring Keanu Reeves as the titular hitman, has grossed $122 million at the international box office and another $123 at the domestic box office. Those ticket sales bring its worldwide tally to an impressive $245 million.
Rebecca Rubin
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