Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves finally hit theaters yesterday, much to the excitement of D&D fans, movie fans, and Chris Pine fans everywhere, and it shows. Early reports from the box office show the film hitting $15 million in tickets just on opening night, and given the positive reviews Dungeons & Dragons has attracted thus far, critics have predicted that the film is well on its way to making $40 million by the end of the weekend. Admittedly, it’s a bit of a high bet, but it’s not hard to see why everyone is so confident about it.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves stars Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Chloe Coleman, and Daisy Head as a ragtag group of adventurers on the hunt for a mysterious lost artifact. The movie’s been the subject of much excitement since at least the beginning of this year, if not longer, and fans of the original Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game have been on the edge of their seats to see if this big-budget film will to their beloved, chaotic game justice.
Image credit: Paramount
Those same fans were apparently flooding into over 3,000 theaters nationwide as Dungeon & Dragons was released to $15.3 million in sales during its opening night, which includes $4.1M from screenings on Thursday night, $5.6M in previews, and the rest in “special screenings,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. With box office numbers and reviews both as high as they are now, those in the know predict that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will hit the $40 million mark before the weekend is over, which would put it in the lead of the weekend box office race, which also includes John Wick: Chapter 4 and Scream VI.
‘Dungeons & Dragons’ Receives High Reviews, ‘A-‘ CinemaScore
Numbers like the ones we see Dungeons & Dragons reaching would put it right alongside Sony’s Uncharted adaption, which opened to $44M early last year and ended up making over $401M worldwide on a $120M budget, according to Box Office Mojo. Comparatively, Dungeons & Dragons took $150M to make, and though it stands in the same game adaptation category as Uncharted, its reviews state it’s being received better. What does this mean for Dungeons & Dragons at the box office? Currently, it’s hard to say.
What isn’t hard to say is that reviews for Dungeons & Dragons are singing its praises – Collider calls Dungeons & Dragons “full of countless shenanigans” with “goofy and fallible characters” while remaining accurate to the game and the crucial lore included in any D&D campaign. The Guardian calls it “refreshing,” “well-cast,” and “a riotously entertaining family-friendly film that hasn’t been painfully squeezed out of a comic-book franchise like the last, forlorn dregs of toothpaste from a long-dead tube.” Deadline reports that the film has been awarded an A- from CinemaScore, 4.5 stars and a, 77% from ComScore, and 51% “would definitely recommend” reviews from moviegoers under the age of 12.
With reviews like these, perhaps critics are right to be optimistic about Dungeons & Dragons’ chances at a high-earning opening; after all, the numbers are only going to climb as more and more audience members get to the theaters or see the movie after its inevitable move to streaming in a few months. If you’re among the legion of fans on the edge of their seats about this movie, then don’t forget to catch Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves at a theater near you today.
