Tracking & Forecasts

Box Office Weekend Forecast: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON ($70M+) and MATERIALISTS ($11M+) Look Toward Healthy Starts on Father’s Day Frame

Photo Credits: Bill Pope & Universal Pictures ("How to Train Your Dragon"); Shabier Kirchner & A24 ("Materialists")

This report also appears in Box Office Theory’s Substack newsletter.

How to Train Your Dragon (2025)
BOT Domestic Weekend Forecast Range: $70 – 80 million
Traditional Industry Tracking: $65 million+

Materialists
BOT Domestic Weekend Forecast Range: $11 – 16 million
Traditional Industry Tracking: $6 million+

Key Tracking Factors & Rationale:

  • Dragon has remained fairly consistent in pre-release tracking since our initial public projection of $65 million-plus, gaining some upside with strong early access sales (screening Wednesday night and assumed to end up included with the weekend gross). Those, combined with Thursday previews, could tally close to $10 million, give or take a bit.
    • Not dissimilar from Lilo & Stitch, tracking is best among women, particularly millennials and parents who grew up with the original animated trilogy and will look to introduce this live-action iteration to their young families.
    • On top of the usual premium screen and IMAX boost, a Father’s Day weekend opening could spur positive interest from dads and sons on Sunday.
    • Pre-sales for the weekend in our exhibition samples are out-pacing a fellow DreamWorks title (Kung Fu Panda 4), while coming in significantly ahead of Mufasa.
    • Reviews are healthy with a 78 percent Certified Fresh rating from 106 Rotten Tomatoes critics.
  • Materialists is courting a decidedly different crowd: cinephiles, date night audiences, and young adults, scattering across the age brackets of Gen Z and millennials where the studio’s arthouse-turned-commercial successes usually shine at the box office.
    • A strong ensemble cast will be a major part of the draw, likely dominated by Pedro Pascal fandom, as will interest in Celine Song’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Past Lives.
    • Pre-sale samples are comparable to those of Challengers and No Hard Feelings.
    • Reviews are also very positive at 86 percent fresh from 58 submissions.
  • On the holdover front, look for male-driven titles such as BallerinaMission: ImpossibleKarate Kid: Legends, and others to score strong Sundays, though some of these titles will see sharp weekend-to-weekend drops due to loss of screens and/our premium formats.

Weekend Forecast
(table below is best viewed in desktop format)

This weekend’s top 10 films are tracking to earn 35 percent below the same weekend in 2024 ($211.1 million), led by Inside Out 2‘s monster $154.2 million opening, and 11 percent above the same weekend in 2019 ($123.6 million), led by Men In Black International‘s $30 million start. Both of those frames were comparable Father’s Day weekends.

Film
Distributor
3-Day (Fri-Sun) Weekend Forecast
3-Day Change from Last Weekend
Projected Domestic Total through Sunday, June 15
Expected  Location Count (as of Wed)
How to Train Your Dragon (2025)
Universal
$73,000,000
NEW
$73,000,000
~4,000+
Lilo & Stitch (2025)
Disney
$14,100,000
-56%
$364,500,000
~3,600
Materialists
A24
$13,200,000
NEW
$13,200,000
~3,000+
Ballerina
Lionsgate
$11,700,000
-52%
$44,100,000
~3,409
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Paramount
$9,300,000
-37%
$165,600,000
~2,900
Karate Kid: Legends
Sony
$5,100,000
-40%
$44,300,000
~3,400
Final Destination: Bloodlines
Warner Bros.
$4,000,000
-38%
$130,900,000
~2,300
The Phoenician Scheme
Focus Features
$3,000,000
-52%
$12,800,000
~1,800
Sinners
Warner Bros.
$2,000,000
-29%
$276,100,000
~1,200
Bring Her Back
A24
$1,800,000
-49%
$18,000,000
~1,700

All forecasts above are subject to revision prior to the start of the weekend and will be notated accordingly. Theater counts are estimated unless otherwise stated.

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