‘Dungeons & Dragons’ magics up $72m global box office debut; ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ hits $245m

Global box office March 31 - April 2

Credit: Comscore, click top right to expand. All figures are estimates.

‘Honor Among Thieves’ scores in domestic and international

Content creators may have struggled in the past to create successful screen exploitations of the king of fantasy role playing games, but the opening box office for Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves suggests that the mission has finally been accomplished.

Honor Among Thieves – directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein from a screenplay they co-wrote with Michael Gilio – has debuted with an estimated $38.5m in North America, and $33.0m for 60 international markets, combining for $71.5m.

Those numbers are enough to give the Dungeons & Dragons film the top spot at the worldwide weekend box office, nudging John Wick: Chapter 4 down to second place.

Among international markets, China leads with an estimated $5.0m, ahead of UK/Ireland ($4.0m for local distributor eOne), Mexico ($2.4m), Australia ($2.4m) and Germany ($2.0m).

Paramount had created localised versions for one memorable comedic scene where the main characters seek to extract information from buried corpses that have been magically revived, including German comedian and actor Rick Kavanian, Australian comedy group Aunty Donna, and YouTube influencer trio Kevin’s English Room in Japan. Filmmakers and cast supported the movie across the global junket and tour which included themed local premieres in Berlin, Paris, London and Mexico City.

New Line Cinema’s Dungeons & Dragons, with a cast including Jeremy Irons, grossed $15.4m in North America, $18.6m for international and $44.0m worldwide over the course of its lifetime following release in December 2000. The film yielded two sequels in 2005 and 2009, both premiering on home-entertainment formats.

Honor Among Thieves stars Chis Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Regé-Jean Page and Hugh Grant in a quest story aimed at reuniting a family and outwitting an avaricious conman. Daley and Goldstein previously wrote Horrible Bosses and directed Game Night.

Among key markets yet to release, Honor Among Thieves touches down in Turkey this week, followed by France on April 12, Brazil April 13 and Middle East April 27.

‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ races towards franchise record

Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4 in its second session took a big tumble from the numbers achieved by its opening weekend, falling 62% in North America and a gentler 45% for international, which expanded from 71 to 75 markets.

Chapter 4 grossed an estimated $28.3m in North America and $35.0m for international, taking the totals so far respectively to $122.9m and $122.0m, which combines for $244.9m worldwide. The John Wick film beat Dungeons & Dragons in international markets at the weekend – albeit with a wider footprint of territories.

Among international markets, Germany led the way with an estimated $3.6m, down 37% – and second at the box office behind local hit Manta, Manta – Zwoter Teil (directed by and starring Til Schweiger, and a belated sequel to 1991’s Manta, Manta). This takes the German total for Chapter 4 to $10.6m.

UK/Ireland grossed an estimated $3.1m, down 46%, taking the total to $12.2m. Mexico dropped only 35%, with estimated weekend takings of $2.8m.

Chapter 4 has already outgrossed the lifetime total of both 2014’s John Wick ($86.1m) and 2017 sequel Chapter 2 ($174.3m), and is now 75% of the way to matching the $328.3m lifetime total of 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.

Three more major markets are yet to open Chapter 4 – South Korea on April 12, Middle East on April 20, and Japan in September.

‘Suzume’ surges past $200m barrier

Second-weekend box office of $22.1m in China helped keep Japanese anime Suzume high in the worldwide weekend box office chart, with the film achieving $27.9m overall for the period – enough for third place. The Makoto Shinkai animation broke through the $200m barrier at the weekend, with total box office of $221.1m.

Suzume has now passed the worldwide lifetime total of Shinkai’s previous film, Weathering With You – which reached $193.0m in 2019. However, it lags behind the $382.3m grossed worldwide by his 2016 film Your Name.

Dog story remake lands in China with $9m

Also in China, Hachiko – iQiyi Films’ local remake of 1987 Japanese film Hachiko Monogatari – opened with $8.9m. Joan Chen stars in this true tale of the Akita dog named Hachi who remained loyal to his master for a decade after he died. The story was previously remade into 2009 US film Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, starring Richard Gere and Joan Allen.

The China box office for Hachiko is sufficient to earn the film fifth place in Comscore’s worldwide weekend chart – ahead of US titles Scream VI and Creed III which are now drifting down the ranking. Chinese box office for the year so far stands at $2.34bn, according to Artisan Gateway – 15.4% up on 2022 for the same period.

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