MCS - 'Dungeons & Dragons' tops 'Wick' to lead box office with $38.5M

2023-04-03 19:16:35 ET

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ( NASDAQ: PARA ) ( NASDAQ: PARAA ) mapped its way to the top of the box-office list with an opening slightly better than expected, and enough to get past a big decline from John Wick: Chapter 4 ( NYSE: LGF.A ) ( LGF.B ).

The D&D film opened to $38.5M, according to Comscore, while John Wick 4 saw a hefty 62% drop-off from its stellar $73.5M opening to end up at $28.2M for its sophomore outing.

Dungeons & Dragons ( PARA )( PARAA ) added another $33M in international markets to land at a global cumulative total of $71.5M. John Wick 4, meanwhile, added another $35M internationally to bring its global total to $244.9M.

The D&D win was also a partial victory for Entertainment One ( NASDAQ: HAS ), owner of D&D's intellectual property, which covered a solid chunk of the film's production budget.

The two films dominated moviegoers' attention; following far behind them in Comscore's totals were Scream VI ( PARA ) ( PARAA ), with $5.3M; His Only Son (Angel Studios), with $5.3M; Creed III ( AMZN ), with $5M; Shazam! Fury of the Gods ( WBD ), with $4.7M; and A Thousand and One ( CMCSA ), with $1.8M.

Industrywide, the box office total of about $97.5M was up 22% vs. the same weekend last year.

Meanwhile, D&D led blockbuster-focused IMAX ( IMAX ) to a global weekend of $8.7M, Comscore noted, with D&D accounting for $5.7M of that (and with The Super Mario Bros. Movie ( CMCSA ) set to head to 1,400 IMAX screens starting Wednesday).

Cinema tickers: AMC Entertainment ( AMC ); Cineworld ( OTCPK:CNNWQ ); Cinemark ( CNK ); ( IMAX ); Marcus ( MCS ); Reading International ( RDI ); Cineplex ( CGX:CA ); National CineMedia ( NCMI ).

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