The reviews are in, and Dungeons and Dragons (DND) is a hit!
According to movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, last year's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (HAT) fantasy flick won a 91% rating from critics, and 93% approval from audiences -- and collected $93.2 million in U.S. box office receipts. BoxOfficeMojo points out that, when you add in global box office figures, that number swells to $208.2 million.
But that probably wasn't enough cash to make HAT profitable for Paramount(NASDAQ: PARA), its distributor. The movie reportedly cost $150 million to produce, and the movie industry's rule of thumb is that marketing costs generally double a film's final budget -- meaning Paramount needed the movie to rake in $300 million-plus to earn a decent profit.
Despite this disappointment, it seems Paramount is ready to roll the dice on DND once more. Here's what you need to know.
1. Paramount has broken the DND curse
Honor Among Thieves was actually the fourth movie in the DND line. A previous trilogy of DND movies, each distributed by a different company, all bombed at the box office -- averaging only 25% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. HAT, however, was different.
HAT may not have made money on its first attempt -- but only because it was competing for moviegoer dollars against the juggernaut that was The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which hoovered up $1.4 billion at the box office. Recognizing this, Paramount has reportedly agreed to partner with DND brand-owner Hasbro(NASDAQ: HAS) on a new project to produce an eight-episode run of a live-action DND television show, to play on the Paramount+ streaming service.
There, DND will join at least one other successful live-action series based on a game. Halo on Paramount+ is already garnering 90%-plus ratings from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
It will also attempt to duplicate the success of a separate, small-screen DND-based series, the Legend of Vox Machina cartoon that runs on Paramount rival Amazon's Prime Video service (and scores a perfect 100% from Rotten Tomatoes-polled critics).
2. A second DND movie may be in the works
No date has yet been set for when a DND series might air on Paramount+. But assuming it does run, and assuming it performs as well on Paramount's streaming service as Halo already has, this could set the stage for a second attempt at a successful DND movie.
According to a story on ScreenRant last year, actor Chris Pine, one of the stars in the original (i.e., fourth) DND film, confirms that not only has he heard "rumors" that a second HAT movie is in the works, but he's "confident" it may happen, and will "absolutely" sign on to reprise his character, Edgin, in such a movie.
3. This could be great news for Hasbro
While Honor Among Thieves' failure to earn a profit was certainly disappointing, it makes sense that Paramount would attempt a second roll of the dice. Around the world, some 50 million fans are already avid players of DND. That's 67% more players than are logged on to Microsoft's Halo Infinite video game service -- a big, established fan base that should be easy to convert into paying customers for movie theaters and for Paramount's streaming service alike.
As for Hasbro, that company is still best known for its toys and board games, which provide the bulk of its $5 billion in annual revenue. But this "consumer products" division didn't earn a profit last year, and even when it was profitable (in 2022, for example), has tended to earn profit margins only a fraction of the incredibly profitable Hasbro Wizards of the Coast (WotC) division, which makes DND.
According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, in 2022, WotC earned Hasbro a gargantuan 36% operating profit margin on its sales. Seeing as consumer products' margin was just 5.5%, it makes sense that Hasbro would want to place more bets on DND as a source of future revenue growth.
Admittedly, this bet may not succeed. Hasbro's film and TV division, dubbed "entertainment," has a pretty spotty record -- losing money more often than not. But right now, DND remains the sharpest arrow in Hasbro's quiver, and its best chance of turning things around in entertainment.
Therefore, it makes sense that Hasbro would pull that arrow out and give it another shot.
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