In its second weekend, “How to Train your Dragon 2” eased 49% to an estimated $25.3 million. The drop was significantly greater than the 34% second-weekend decline of the original film in the series. Combined with the lower-than-expected opening weekend, the sequel is now all but guaranteed to finish below the original film’s $217.6 million domestic gross.
Last weekend at the U.S. box office, two films with strong animation ties opened in very different fashions. Disney’s “Maleficent,” a dark fantasy reimagining of the 1959 animated feature from the perspective of the villain, launched with $69.4 million.
Seth MacFarlane can do anything: create animation, make live-action features, sing, act, produce live-action sitcoms and science documentaries, host the Oscars, and add to that list now, write novels. Of course, whether he does any of it well is another question.
The last time that animation artists starred in a major live-action film was 1998’s BASEketball with South Park creators Trey Parker and …