‘How to Train Your Dragon’ stays No. 1, ‘Madea’ a strong 2nd
“How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” topped the North American box office for a second week, but close on its tail was Tyler Perry’s final installment of the “Madea” franchise. Driven by a largely female audience, “A Madea Family Funeral” had a better-than-expected debut.
The third installment in the “How To Train Your Dragon” series grossed an estimated $30 million this weekend according to Universal Pictures on Sunday, bringing its domestic total just shy of $100 million. Worldwide, the DreamWorks Animation film has made over $375 million. In China alone, it opened in first place with $33.4 million.
“A Madea Family Funeral” took second place at the domestic box office with an estimated $27 million, a third best for the 15-yearold franchise. The “Madea” films have never been all that popular with critics—this one splattered out with a 24 percent on Rotten Tomatoes— but audiences have never seemed to care. This time around the audience, which was 67 percent female and 78 percent over the age of 25, gave the film a solid ACinemaScore.
“That character just resonates,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “These films are absolutely critic-proof. The audience has spoken and they love Madea and they’re saying goodbye.”
Many people, however, used this weekend to catch-up with the big winners at the Oscars.
Best-picture winner “Green Book” got the biggest post-Oscars bump, adding $4.71 million over the weekend from theaters. Best Animated Feature winner “Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse” banked an additional $2.1 million, the encore version of “A Star Is Born” with 12 additional minutes of footage added $1.9 million, “Bohemian Rhapsody” earned $975,000 and “The Favourite” took in $825,000.