While it didn’t set the box office on fire when it came out this spring, Paramount hasn’t totally given up on a Dungeons & Dragons sequel. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves fell short of $100 million at the North American box office, only grossing $93 million, with an additional $115 million overseas, putting its total at over $200 million internationally. While those are mediocre numbers, Paramount studios boss Brian Robbins told THR that while it’ll lose money, they could still do a sequel. “We’ve got to figure out a way to make it for less,” said Robbins in an expansive interview that touches on some of the hurdles the studio has faced setting up tentpole movies in the post-COVID era. While Top Gun: Maverick was a mega-hit, Babylon was a colossal flop. This summer’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has been overshadowed by the dual Barbenheimer threat, although it could still leg out to a respectable North American gross and seems sure to make bank overseas.
In the piece, Robbins, who started as an actor on TV’s Head of the Class before directing movies like Good Burger and Varsity Blues prior to his mogul days, doesn’t address Mission Impossible’s box office run. But, he does admit Transformers: Rise of the Beasts‘ $427 million worldwide gross is “not great, but good,” although one imagines a studio like WB would kill to have had The Flash gross as much. Robbins and company seem keen to bring the GI Joe’s into the Transformers big-screen universe (as teased in the film), so that franchise seems likely to go on. But, Dungeons & Dragons, despite its critical and audience acclaim, seems like a long shot to continue, given that the movie carried a reported $150 million budget. Perhaps it is a property that will find new life on the small screen, with the studio recently green-lighting a series for Paramount Plus.
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