Box office: How to Train Your Dragon 3 swoops in for another victory

DreamWorks will take the top spot at the box office for the second weekend in a row with the third How to Train Your Dragon movie.

According to estimates, The Hidden World (directed by Dean DeBlois) is all set to flap its wings to a cool $30 million domestically. Compared to the first two installments, How to Train Your Dragon 3 is one-upping both. How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) did $29 million and $24 million respectively in their second weekends at the domestic box office. In North America, the trilogy capper has made $97.6 million so far, with sales abroad yielding more than $277 million.

Alita: Battle Angel is Motorball-ing toward the third spot with $7 million. Now in its third outing in theaters, the James Cameron-produced anime adaptation has made over $66 million domestically and $222+ million in foreign box-office markets. Having already recouped its production budget of $170 million, the film is faring better than another VFX-heavy studio project of the last few months, Mortal Engines, which was forecast to lose $100 million.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is building fourth place with $6 million for Warner Bros. Nearing its one-month anniversary in theaters, the animated sequel stands at more than $86 million domestically and $52+ million abroad. After a month had passed in 2014, the first Lego Movie was already nearing the $200 million mark at the domestic box office, so the follow-up's performance is somewhat underwhelming.

Warner Bros. Pictures CEO Kevin Tsujihara recently commented on the movie's disappointing track record thus far when he said:

"It didn’t do as well as tracking would’ve suggested, which was a little puzzling. The first movie was so fresh and so different. We need to continually rethink the experience, but the Lego brand is incredibly strong. On the game side, it’s been an incredible franchise."

Greta, Neil Jordan's psychological horror/thriller, is also in play this weekend with a modest $4.5 million from North American theaters. While this would be a dreadful opening for any major studio feature, Focus Features only spent $4 million on distribution rights at the Toronto Film Festival.

 Also co-written by Jordan (Byzantium), the movie stars Chloë Grace Moretz (Suspiria) as a young woman who hires a shady widow (played by The Romanoffs' Isabelle Huppert). Maika Monroe (Eleventh Hour), Colm Feore (The Umbrella Academy), and Stephen Rea (Counterpart) all co-star.

(via The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Forbes & Box Office Mojo)