Hark! “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” looks to reach the top of box office charts in its opening weekend, besting the sophomore outing of “John Wick: Chapter 4.”
“Honor Among Thieves” scored $15.3 million in its opening day, a figure that includes $5.6 million from Thursday screenings and specialty previews. Playing in 3,855 venues, the fantasy comedy is projecting a finish around $40 million, which would come in around the higher end of estimates heading into the weekend.
That’s a solid figure for “Honor Among Thieves,” which Paramount has thrown support behind with a sweeping press tour and a premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. Along with the studio, Entertainment One (eOne) covered a good fraction of the production budget for the film, which totals about $150 million between the two banners. eOne is a subsidiary of Hasbro, which controls the “Dungeons & Dragons” intellectual property.
The role-playing game adaptation will have to keep drawing audiences to fully justify its price tag. Reviews have been strong, with the film scoring an 89% approval rating from top critics on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. In Variety’s review, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman called the film “at once cheesy and charming, synthetic and spectacular, cozily derivative and rambunctiously inventive, a processed piece of junk-culture joy that, by the end, may bring a tear to your eye.”
Audiences are also a thumbs-up. “Honor Among Thieves” landed an “A-” grade through research firm Cinema Score, indicating that the first round of ticket buyers were amply roused by the adventure film.
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” follows a group of adventurers, including Chris Pine as the singing bard Edgin Darvis, Michelle Rodriguez as the ferocious barbarian Holga Kilgore, Regé-Jean Page as a powerful paladin Xenk Yendar, Justice Smith as the wild magic sorcerer Simon Aumar and Sophia Lillis as the tiefling druid Doric. Under the threat of an evil Red Wizard, the unlikely heroes must come together. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley direct.
More to come…
