New York, 23 June

‘How to Train Your Dragon’ stood No. 1 at the North American box office, beating new releases ‘Elio’ and ‘28 Years Later’ with $37M.The Universal Pictures live-action remake remained the top film, bringing in USD 37 million in ticket sales in its second weekend, despite the sizeable new releases of 'Elio' and '28 Years Later', according to studio estimates Sunday. 'How To Train Your Dragon' has rapidly amassed USD 358.2 million worldwide.

Six years after its last entry, the Dean DeBlois-directed 'How To Train Your Dragon' has proven a potent revival of the DreamWorks Animation franchise. A sequel is already in the works for the USD 150 million production, which remakes the 2010 animated tale about a Viking boy and his dragon.

Pixar's 'Elio' had a particularly tough weekend. The Walt Disney Co animation studio has often launched some of its biggest titles in June, including 'Cars', 'WALL-E' and 'Toy Story 4'. But 'Elio', a science fiction adventure about a boy who dreams of meeting aliens, notched a modest USD 21 million, the lowest opening ever for Pixar.

Disney and Pixar spent at least USD 150 million making 'Elio', which didn't fare any better internationally than it did in North America, bringing in just USD 14 million from 43 territories. Pixar stumbled coming out of the pandemic before stabilizing performance with 2023's “Elemental” (USD 496.4 million worldwide) and 2024's 'Inside Out 2' (USD 1.7 billion), which was the company's biggest box office hit.

The Sony Pictures release opened with USD 30 million. That was good enough to give Boyle, the filmmaker of 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Trainspotting,' the biggest opening weekend of his career. The film, which cost USD 60 million to make, jumps ahead nearly three decades from the outbreak of the so-called rage virus for a coming-of-age story about a 12-year-old (Alfie Williams) venturing out of his family's protected village. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes co-star.

Reviews have been good (90% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) for '28 Years Later', though audience reaction (a “B” CinemaScore) is mixed. Boyle has more plans for the zombie franchise, which will next see the release of “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” next year from director Nia DaCosta.

'28 Years Later' added another USD 30 million in 59 overseas markets.

After its strong start last weekend with USD 12 million, A24's 'Materialists' held well with USD 5.8 million in its second weekend. The romantic drama by writer-director Celine Song and starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans has collected USD 24 million so far.

Next weekend should also be a competitive one in movie theaters, with both 'F1', from Apple and Warner Bros, and Universal's 'Megan 2.0' launching in cinemas.