Dungeons & Dragons has a solid start at the box office

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that today marks the opening of Paramount’s newest franchise bid, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The studio has been going all out promoting this big-budget adaptation of the classic game by Game Night directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. It looks like the various word-of-mouth screenings have paid off, with Deadline reporting that the movie has taken in $5.6 million in previews. Now, that comes with a caveat, as the trade says that a solid chunk of that number comes from preview screenings that took place over the last few weeks, as the movie has been aggressively pre-screened. As it is, Dungeons & Dragons had better previews than Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and even beat last year’s Uncharted, which made $3.7 million on its way to a $44 million opening. A number in that range would be a big win for the studio, with the latest projections having it opening in the $30 million range, which would be a bit soft.

The big question mark this weekend is whether Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will be able to eke out a win over John Wick: Chapter 4 in its second weekend. Our own analyst, Brad Hamerly, thinks so, but it will be a tight race. The film must well this weekend so that it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle when Universal opens Super Mario Bros over Easter Weekend.

Speaking for myself, I was one of the many who attended an early screening of Dungeons & Dragons, and I was quite charmed by the film. I interviewed the cast way back in June of last year, and all involved were gung-ho about making a big-hearted family adventure. To me, they succeeded, as I liked it even more than our own JimmyO, who gave it 7/10.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is now playing, and, for my money, it’s solid family entertainment.