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Kim Hollis: How to Train Your Dragon 2, a follow-up to the delightful 2010 film, earned $49.5 million this weekend. What do you think of this result?

Edwin Davies: Well, it's not a bad result, per se. Even accounting for inflation it saw some growth from the first one, the reviews were almost as strong the second time around and the response from viewers seems to be very positive, so it has a lot of things in its favor. But I think a lot of people, myself included, thought that it would break away from the behavior of the first film, which famously had a pretty muted opening but went on to show tremendous legs. Instead, it seems to be repeating the pattern, just with slightly higher numbers.

While I think that the film will ultimately do fine, partly due to its quality and in-built affection for the series, and partly due to the lack of any other animated films being released throughout the rest of the summer (other than Planes: Fire and Rescue, which seems like a non-factor) I'm struggling to think why exactly it didn't do better, especially since the last big animated film was Rio 2, which came out all the way back in April and was only a moderate success at best. (Also, I'd completely forgotten that Oz movie was released, and it's probably best if we all go ahead and do that.)

The two most likely reasons, for me, seem to be the four year gap between the first and second films, which might be too long to keep the attention of the younger audience who fell in love with the first film, and the fact that the ads focused more on the drama and adventure of the story rather than any comedy. The great strength of the first How to Train Your Dragon was its heart and sincerity, sprinkled with a bit of humor, but in general animated films do better if they can put a few jokes in the trailers to appeal to adults. While the approach that DreamWorks took was probably more true to the movie, it probably limited the appeal at this initial stage.

However, considering the lack of competition, I'd be surprised if ultimately it doesn't at least get close to the final total of the first How to Train Your Dragon while hugely expanding overseas, which would more than justify making more of them for years to come.

Matthew Huntley: I'm with Edwin on this in that I can't completely rationalize why HTTYD2 didn't open bigger - in fact, a lot bigger, especially since the original was so beloved and critically lauded. I imagine it has something to do with a still-strong Maleficent continuing to win over the family audience, but I thought this demographic would be eating the Dragon toon up with relative ease, perhaps to the tune of $70-$80 million. I'm reminded of when Star Trek Into Darkness opened to somewhat disappointing numbers last year. That too was a follow-up to a very successful original (both audience and critical reception-wise), but it ultimately came in under expectations. I can see DRAGON 2 matching its predecessor, but perhaps not by enough to justify another sequel. Perhaps too much time passed between 2010 and 2014 that those who loved the first movie have grown up and simply weren't interested.

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