‘How To Train Your Dragon’ Passes $623.5M Worldwide, Now The Franchise’s Highest-Grossing Film

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, live-action adaptations of fan-favorite animated films are big business for the studios. Universal’s live-action reimagining of DreamWorks’s 2010 animated hit How to Train Your Dragon soared past a major benchmark this weekend, officially becoming the highest-grossing entry in the series.

After the weekend, the film has grossed an estimated $623.5 million worldwide, edging past How to Train Your Dragon 2’s $621 million lifetime total and cementing its status as a major hit for the franchise. The tally includes $261.5 million domestic and $361.9 million from international markets, propelled by strong holds in key territories and continued repeat viewership among families and franchise loyalists.

The remake’s performance builds on a record-breaking start earlier this summer, when it debuted to $84.6 million domestically, the largest opening in franchise history. Solid word-of-mouth, aided by premium formats and cross-generational nostalgia, has fueled a sustained run at the box office, with drops week-to-week tracking well below typical family-film averages.

The success comes amid a banner year for live-action remakes of animated favorites. This summer, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch remake was the first Hollywood film to cross $1 billion at the global box office, proving that carefully reinterpreted, family-focused properties can still command significant theatrical attention in a crowded marketplace. The back-to-back wins for Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon suggest audience appetite for these adaptations remains high.

Universal and DreamWorks are expected to fast-track a HTTYD sequel, as Disney has already done for Lilo & Stitch. The key difference here is that a Lilo & Stitch sequel will require an original story – to be penned by co-creator Chris Sanders – while a second How to Train Your Dragon film already exists to be adapted from.