‘How to Train Your Dragon’ debuts at number one at the Italian box office, totalling 3 million euros

The past week at the Italian box office confirms a clear trend: top-performing films continue to dominate the market. How to Train Your Dragon, the live-action remake of the original DreamWorks animated film, went straight to the top, closing its three-day opening weekend (Friday to Sunday) with €2.3 million, which rises to nearly €2.9 million when including previews from the previous Sunday. It’s a solid debut, in line with the last entry in the franchise, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, which opened with €3.2 million, though it has to be accounted that was in the more favorable release window of late January 2019. Even so, this new version How to Train Your Dragon could potentially reach a total of €7 million.

In second place, Lilo & Stitch continues to be a strong competitor, due to its overlapping target audience. It’s the only title in the Top Ten to have grossed over €1 million for the weekend, with a modest drop of just 32% compared to the previous week. It also boasts an excellent per-theater average of €2,172 across 462 cinemas. The total after four weeks is now €19.9 million.

The top new release of the week, Ballerina, lands in third place with just over €500,000. Meanwhile, Heart Eyes debuted in eighth place with €55,000, and The Dark Nightmare follows in ninth with €40,000.

These numbers confirm that, for several weeks now, the Top 3 films alone have been propping up the entire box office. The weekend’s overall total was €4,935,569, with €4,437,959 of that coming from the Top Ten, nearly 90% of the entire market. The top three films alone brought in nearly €3.9 million.

In fourth place, Karate Kid: Legends, in its second week, earned €222,000, bringing its total to €823,000. The film dropped 46% week over week. At No. 5, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning fell only 42%, crossing the €4 million mark after nearly a month in theaters.

Other holdovers include The Phoenician Scheme (6th) and Fuori (7th, and the only Italian title in the Top Ten), both of which also posted moderate drops of 43% and 46%, respectively. Their cumulative grosses are €918,000 and €1.6 million.

Rounding out the Top Ten, The Ritual earned €626,000 total after three weeks.