How To Train Your Dragon Box Office: Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral Couldn't Top The Hidden World

hiccup in how to train your dragon: the hidden world

It's the end of a unique era in entertainment, with Tyler Perry's long-standing Madea film franchise coming to a close after 14 years, 10 live-action features and an animated movie. (Not to mention the character's Meet the Browns cameo.) Unsurprisingly, Madea's swan song had a solid weekend at the box office, but it couldn't top How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

In its second week, the third and final entry in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise did take a noteworthy percentage tumble to bring in just over $30 million. However, The Hidden World once again sold the most tickets, remaining in the most envied spot on the Top 10 above Madea's $27 million. Check out the breakdown below.

weekend box office how to train your dragon

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Movie TitleWeekend AmountTotal AmountChart Position Last WeekNumber of Screens
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World300460009769627514286
Tyler Perry's A Madea Family Funeral270500002705000002442
Alita: Battle Angel70000007223130823096
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part66150009167004033458
Green Book471100075920611112641
Fighting With My Family46912841294590542855
Isn't It Romantic46450004029900353325
Greta4585000458500002411
What Men Want27000004964100462018
Happy Death Day 2U25160002528261072331

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World's box office earnings took around a 45% dip between the first and second weeks, but this weekend's projections still put it safely ahead of all the other movies in theaters. It probably helped that only two wide releases were out there threatening to derail the animated adventure's success.

At this point, it's still hard to tell where The Hidden World will eventually land in comparison with the other How to Train Your Dragon films. Its $55 million opening was the best of the three, but that might not be a great sign. The second film outpaced the first on premiere weekend in the U.S., but still earned $40 million less than its predecessor in domestic grosses. The second film absolutely dominated worldwide, however, so that will likely be the biggest factor for this film as well.

a madea family funeral madea is an o.g.

Not too far below How to Train Your Dragon's final entry was Tyler Perry's own final entry in his "loving grandma with a lethal attitude" series of Madea films. A Madea Family Funeral isn't centered on the wisecracking matriarch's eternal sendoff, but will still close out Perry's beloved and presumably profitable series of dramatic comedies. (His reasoning for ending things makes enough sense.) Audiences were ready for it, too, and its $27 million weekend made it the fourth biggest premiere of the filmmaker's career.

The New Orleans native Tyler Perry is a master at crafting lower-budget movies that usually double or triple the original funding, and only one of his Madea films brought in less than $50 million in domestic grosses. (It was the rare sequel-within-a-series-of-sequels Boo 2! A Madea Halloween.) A Madea Family Funeral doesn't immediately look set to top the most successful entry, Madea Goes to Jail, but March could continue to be a good month for Perry as counter-programming to Marvel.

Breaking those numbers down a bit, A Madea Family Funeral was the clear box office winner for the weekend when one is looking at money-per-screen estimates. Tyler Perry's comedy earned an average of $11,077 across its 2,442 theaters, while the third Dragon movie averaged $7,010 in each of its 4,286 theaters. Way more screens for the animated movie, but less than a $3 million lead in the end. To be fair, The Hidden World averaged $12,919 in slightly fewer theaters for its premiere.

greta chloe moretz

The modern-day obsession thriller Greta was the weekend's other wide release, bringing in an estimated $4.5 million for Focus. First debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival to overall middling reviews, Greta has gotten critical blessings for performances from stars Isabelle Huppert and Chloë Grace Moretz. However, reviews were less positive when it came to the script from director Neil Jordan and Ray Wright.

Expectations weren't overly high for Greta, which filmed partially in Italy on a low-end budget. It was projected to make somewhere around $6 million for its debut weekend, so the closer-to-reality $4.5 million isn't remarkable for a movie releasing in more than 2,400 theaters.

While making a definitive cause/effect relationship would be complicated, anyone could safely guess that last weekend's Academy Awards ceremony had a big influence on this week's box office estimates. Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen's road trip drama Green Book took home the Best Picture trophy, for better or worse, and it returned to the Top 10.

Green Book, which has been in theaters since its limited release on November 16, got a screening boost from Universal to capitalize on the Best Picture win, as well as Mahershala Ali's Best Supporting Actor win, and the Best Original Screenplay win for Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga. This is the second largest number of theaters Green Book has gotten for any weekend, and the total more than doubles how many it showed up in last weekend, when it exited the Top 10 to hit #11.

Otherwise, everything else at the box office fell according to a predictable downward slope, with the remaining six films each dropping in the same order they showed up in last week's roundup. Will the same be the case when next week gets here?

Probably not, because it's Captain Marvel week! The next entry in the MCU might easily make more money than this week's top ten films combined. Be sure to come back next week to see how far Captain Marvel will fly above the competition.

Nick Venable
Assistant Managing Editor

Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper.  Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.