Box Office: Lilo and Stitch nears 950 million while How to Train your Dragon Crosses 450 million
The live-action remakes are dominating the box office. Let's dive in...
We live in a world of live-action remakes. Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, which is a live action remake of the well-beloved 2002 animated movie, has grossed 401.2 million at the domestic box office and 546.9 million at the foreign box office, for a worldwide total of 948 million. This is the third highest grossing movie of the year (behind Ne Zha 2 and Minecraft) and a much-needed win for Disney. Even if it won’t cross the billion, with a budget of 100 million, this one already turned into a massive profit. There’s no wonder that a sequel was just announced.
Universal / DreamWorks How to Train your Dragon has grossed 203 million at the domestic box office and 256 million at the foreign box office, for a worldwide total of 459 million. As of now, it should finish around 550-650 million, which will be a great result for this 150-million live-action remake. Yes, it cost higher, and it’s not doing as great as Lilo & Stitch, but you need to remember that Stitch is way more popular, and this is the first DreamWorks live-action remake. The most important thing is that the audience really loved it, so the sequel (set for summer 2027) should have a nice bump.
This shows the power of live-action remakes, especially when you’re remaking an iconic family movie. Why I really loved How to Train your Dragon, it makes me a little sad to see this movie doing well, while an original Pixar movie, Elio, is completely flopping. It also shows the power of family movies – these movies usually have incredible legs at the box office. Not to mention that when it comes to live-action remakes, you have both the adults and the kids, so that’s a big bonus.
I wonder what lessons Hollywood will learn from these successes. The wrong lesson will be – oh, we can remake everything. No you’re not. You need to choose what to remake, and above everything, you need to do this with passion. One of the main reasons why people love the live-action remake of How to Train your Dragon is because of the passion. Yes, it’s essentially a shot-by-shot remake, but you can feel the original director here, you can feel the love and care of everyone involved in this, and that’s what makes people really appreciate a movie.