Dungeons & Dragons Movie’s Box Office Disappointment Bluntly Explained By Hugh Grant

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves star Hugh Grant bluntly explains why the film underperformed at the box office. Directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the 2023 movie is based on the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game and follows a team of unlikely companions, led by Chris Pine’s Edgin, as they face off against Grant’s nefarious Forge Fitzwilliam. Despite the positive Honor Among Thieves reviews, the film disappointed at the box office, grossing $208 million worldwide on an estimated budget of $150 million.

In a recent interview with THR, Grant is speaking more broadly about his distaste for studio interference in the making of bigger movies when he singles Honor Among Thieves out as an exception, calling it “such a good film.” As for why it didn’t make a mark at the box office, he calls that the “biggest mystery.” He goes on to say, however, that there clearly wasn’t widespread audience interest seeing a movie based on the Dungeons & Dragons game. Read his comment below:

“Why didn’t anyone do market research before? I think that’s what went wrong:
Basically, people just thought, I don’t want to see a film about this game.
Why had no one asked the public?”

Will Honor Among Thieves 2 Happen?

Daley and Goldstein’s Dungeons & Dragons film currently sports an impressive 91% critics’ score and 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Clearly, those who saw the film tended to enjoy it, and talk quickly emerged regarding a potential Honor Among Thieves 2, with Pine himself expressing interest in returning to that world. With a $150 million budget, however, the project may have been looking at a break-even point of as high as $375 million, a goal it clearly fell far short of.

The positive reception and strong VOD performance has kept hopes for Honor Among Thieves 2 alive, and Paramount CEO Brian Robbins addressed the possibility in an interview last year, saying that for a sequel to happen, “We’ve got to figure out a way to make it for less.”

Robbins and Grant, then, are really touching on the same thing, which is that the budget level for Honor Among Thieves was not commensurate with the size of the audience that is interested in a Dungeons & Dragons movie. If the franchise continues and picks up the story after the Honor Among Thieves ending, it will continue at a scale in keeping with general interest in this kind of content.

One key challenge that a sequel would face is maintaining the fantastical action and effects-driven spectacle of the first film on a lower budget. The world of D&D necessitates lots of effects, which is part of why the first film cost so much.

Our Take On Grant’s Honor Among Thieves Explanation

The D&D Film Deserved To Succeed

Dungeons & Dragons, the game, was born in the 1970s, and it has become one of the most popular tabletop role-playing games of all time. A popular web series called Critical Role launched in 2015 in which voice actors embarked on epic D&D campaigns, and Stranger Things (2016-) has also helped to introduce the game to a wider audience. On paper, Honor Among Thieves appears like it should have worked, but perhaps the underperformance is proof that D&D still remains too niche of an IP for a blockbuster film adaptation.

That being said, the positive reception to the film suggests that even those not interested in D&D found things to enjoy about Honor Among Thieves. The cast was charming, the filmmaking inventive, and the movie effectively mixed action and humor. A Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves sequel seems unlikely, and the film stands as proof that quality and box office performance don’t always go hand in hand.

Source: THR

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