Some great news for Dragon fans. Despite its underwhelming domestic performance, How to Train Your Dragon 2 has grown a strong set of legs overseas as expected.
In a press release from DreamWorks Animation, the company announced that, thanks to a strong opening day gross of $5.6 million yesterday in China, How To Train Your Dragon 2 has officially crossed the $500 million mark worldwide, becoming 2014’s highest-grossing animated film to date and one of the top ten highest-grossing films of the year in any genre, in addition to being one of the best reviewed films of the year!
“We have been incredibly proud of How to Train Your Dragon 2 from the moment we saw it and we’re thrilled that it has been embraced around the world with such enthusiasm,” said Chief Marketing Officer Dawn Taubin. “This film is not only an artistic and technical achievement for DreamWorks, but its strength at the global box office proves that audiences are embracing it as one of the most entertaining films of the year.”
This comes not only as great news for DWA, whose recent box office struggles have been well documented, but also further confirmation of the growing importance of the worldwide box office, especially in the case of animated films. Granted, it won’t work wonders for everybody, as Planes: Fire & Rescue‘s box office performance and DisneyToon’s subsequent layoffs have attested to, but in How To Train Your Dragon 2‘s case, a strong word-of-mouth from both critics and fans can work wonders in turning a profit.
“This is a tremendous result for such a deserving, critically acclaimed film,” said Chris Aronson, President Domestic Theatrical Distribution, 20th Century Fox. “We look forward to riding Dragons 2 to greater box office heights.”
And it may do just that, as How To Train Your Dragon 2 will also be opening in Italy this weekend.
