By Chris Kavan - 02/21/19 at 07:40 AM CT
So far 2019 has been a bit of a letdown with a lot of films coming in below expectations. In fact, just one film has broke the $100 million mark thus far. Animated films are usually a solid bet, but with LEGO Movie 2 failing to take off, perhaps the How to Train Your Dragon franchise will have a better result at the box office. Meanwhile, after a pretty impressive limited debut, the biopic about wrestler Saraya "Paige" Knight also goes wide. Hopefully one or the other, or both, can bring the box office out of these winter doldrums and light things up.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD The Train Your Dragon series is one I admit I haven't watched any of yet. It's not that I don't want to - it just hasn't presented itself on any of my streaming platforms and thus, I have missed the adventures of Hiccup and his dragon Toothless, along with Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Gobber and the rest of the clan. But after many trials and tribulations, it seems everything is good with humans and dragons living in harmony - but, of course, things can't remain peaceful forever. After discovering a hidden world filled with dragons, it turns out that not everyone is on board with the two species co-existing and tyrant Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham) arrives to wipe out dragonkind once and for all. Jay Baruchel and America Ferrera return to voice Hiccup and Astrid with the supporting cast comprised of the likes of Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig and Kit Harington. The series has been popular enough with the first film grossing over $217 million and the sequel hitting $177 million. Now it's time for this third entry to step up to the plate and hit a home run - and hopefully give the box office a decent hit.
Dwayne Johnson is a busy man - not only acting, but now a producer on the biopic of wrestler Paige (Saraya Knight), played by Florence Pugh, in Fighting with My Family. And what a family she has with Nick Frost and Lena Headey playing her parents and Jack Lowden as her brother, Zak. The entire Knight family tours the U.S., wrestling in small venues with dreams of reaching something more. Enter "The Rock" played by, uh, Dwayne Johnson (who else, right?) who sees something special - and the rest is history. The film features a mix of actors and wrestlers (who are really actors anyway) with the likes of Stephen Merchant, Vince Vaughn, John Cena, Paul "Big Show" Wight and Julia Davis rounding out the cast. I mean, if you're a wrestling fan, this is a dream come true and based on the limited release, it looks to shape up as a solid film and should find a place in the top five for sure. It's not going to make Fast and Furious type bucks, but for Johnson, it should be another winning film and could open the doors for more films based around the WWE.
We'll find out soon enough if the third film in the How to Train Your Dragon series is going to finally wake things up at the box office. I'll have all the details on Sunday.
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