Tag: Animated Movies

How to Train Your Dragon 2 Box Office Prediction

With a surprisingly serious dearth of animated features for the kiddos this summer, DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 appears poised to breathe some fire into the box office when it opens Friday. Opening ultra-wide on approximately 4,100 screens, Dragon 2 is the sequel to the 2010 original that grossed $43.7 million in its March debut on its way to a $217 million domestic haul. The numbers for the sequel are expected to be quite higher and its premiere could easily double the first weekend of its predecessor.

Featuring the voices of Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig and Cate Blanchett – Dragon so far stands at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and it’ll surely be a candidate for Best Animated Feature come Oscar time. While summer 2013 saw a slew of animated features vying for attention, this season is different. How to Train Your Dragon 2 is really the only game in town with just Planes: Fire&Rescue coming in mid July. With a lack of the usual genre fare for family audiences, their demographic should flock to this.

A legit question is whether this could challenge Captain America: The Winter Soldier‘s $95 million debut which still stands as 2014’s highest. I don’t think it’ll quite get there, but it certainly wouldn’t shock me. I’ll predict it gets just past double what the first did out of the gate and it should have healthy legs in subsequent weekends.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 opening weekend prediction: $88.7 million

For my 22 Jump Street prediction, click here:

22 Jump Street Box Office Prediction

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return Box Office Prediction

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return is an animated feature from the upstart Summertime Entertainment opening Friday. It comes with a healthy estimated budget of $70 million. It’s based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and I think we’re all familiar with the massively successful pictures his works have spawned. It features the voices of “Glee” actress Lea Michele, as well as Kelsey Grammer, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, Martin Short, and Patrick Stewart.

This begs the question: is it just me or does this thing seem to be gaining very little traction with audiences? I would offer that the marketing push for Oz has been relatively minor, even though it’s scheduled to open on a hefty 2800+ screens. Perhaps the Oz affiliation alone could propel this to a double digit opening, but I don’t even think it gets to that minor distinction. There is a shortage of kiddie related pics now that Rio 2 has made the bulk of its gross (though The Amazing Spider-Man 2 should still be doing quite well in weekend #2).

I’m predicting that family audiences will mostly ignore Dorothy’s Return and decide that when it comes to spending money on this, there’s no place like staying home.

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return opening weekend prediction: $5.7 million

For my Neighbors prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/05/04/neighbors-box-office-prediction/

For my Moms’ Night Out prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/05/04/moms-night-out-box-office-prediction/

Rio 2 Box Office Prediction

20th Century Fox is putting out the animated sequel Rio 2 next Friday which will attempt to unseat the Captain America sequel for the #1 spot after its mammoth record setting premiere. This is the follow-up to the 2011 hit which took in a solid $143 million domestically after its $39 million opening.

Featuring the voices of Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, will.i.am, and Jamie Foxx, among others, the big question is whether or not Rio 2 opens bigger than its predecessor. I’m uncertain. While Rio did respectable business, it didn’t exactly approach the levels of what Pixar or the Despicable Me series has been accomplishing.

Having said that, I’ll predict this sequel opens just slightly north of the original. My prediction will likely put at the #2 spot in a close fight with Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Rio 2 opening weekend prediction: $41.7 million

For my Draft Day prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/04/06/draft-day-box-office-prediction/

For my Oculus prediction, click here:

https://toddmthatcher.com/2014/04/06/oculus-box-office-prediction/