The success of the live-action remake of Methods to Prepare Your Dragon, which already has a live-action sequel within the works, makes it in order that one filmmaking duo is liable for the 2 largest hits of the style for the yr. Whereas the Methods to Prepare Your Dragon motion pictures are DreamWorks’ first makes an attempt at bringing considered one of their traditional animated properties into the live-action realm, Disney has been doing the identical factor for for much longer. Their live-action remakes have been a part of {the marketplace} because the Nineteen Nineties with titles just like the 1996 Glenn Shut film 101 Dalmatians.
Nevertheless, Disney live-action remakes didn’t come to the fore till 2010’s Alice in Wonderland made greater than $1 billion, main quite a few different remakes to enter manufacturing. This consists of fellow billion-dollar titles akin to 2017’s Magnificence and the Beast and 2019’s Aladdin and The Lion King. Nevertheless, in recent times their output has turn out to be extra spotty, with 2023’s The Little Mermaid underperforming and 2025’s Snow White failing way more catastrophically, grossing simply $205.6 million in opposition to a reported $270 million funds and proving that not all live-action remakes are profitable, making 2025’s largest hits stand out much more.

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How To Prepare Your Dragon Reside-Motion Remake’s 10 Adjustments To The Animated Film
How To Prepare Your Dragon’s live-action remake is remarkably much like the unique animated movie, however there are some fairly vital tweaks.
Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders Are Accountable For How To Prepare Your Dragon
The Unique 2010 Film Spawned A Main Franchise
On the time of writing, the live-action Methods to Prepare Your Dragon field workplace is projected to have a world debut of greater than $200 million, which is able to see the film exceeding its reported $150 million funds within the first few days of its run alone. Nevertheless, this virtually definitely wouldn’t have been the case with out the success of the unique 2010 film, for which audiences have constructed up main nostalgia through the years. That undertaking was helmed by directing duo Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders and loosely primarily based on the youngsters’s ebook collection by Cressida Cowell.
[2010’s How to Train Your Dragon] was nominated for 2 Oscars…
The unique Methods to Prepare Your Dragon, which additionally incorporates a screenplay by Deblois and Sanders with Will Davies, was each a important and industrial success. Along with spawning a significant movie franchise, it was nominated for 2 Oscars, grossed $494.9 million in opposition to its reported $165 million funds, has a near-perfect, Licensed Contemporary Rotten Tomatoes rating of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, and boasts a equally sturdy viewers rating of 91%.
Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders Are Additionally Behind The Unique Lilo & Sew
The 2025 Remake Spent Three Weekends At No. 1
Earlier than they helmed Methods to Prepare Your Dragon for DreamWorks, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois co-wrote and co-directed the 2002 Disney animated film Lilo & Sew. The unique film grossed $273.1 million in opposition to a reported $80 million funds, earned an Oscar nomination for Finest Animated Characteristic, and has a Licensed Contemporary 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Lilo & Sew finally misplaced the Finest Animated Characteristic Oscar to Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.
The 2002 film’s live-action remake, which premiered in Might 2025, has additionally confirmed to be an enormous success. In reality, it maintained a spot at No. 1 on the home field workplace for 3 consecutive weeks till it was toppled by Methods to Prepare Your Dragon. The Lilo & Sew field workplace, which is at the moment on a trajectory to exceed $1 billion, has damaged quite a few data, together with incomes the perfect Memorial Day opening weekend ever (surpassing 2022’s smash hit High Gun: Maverick). It’s possible that the film will turn out to be the third-biggest Disney live-action remake of all time.
Each Filmmakers Are Nonetheless Concerned In The Reside-Motion Remakes
Chris Sanders Labored On Each 2025 Motion pictures
On prime of the truth that the 2 largest live-action remakes of the yr are primarily based on properties helmed by Sanders and DeBlois, each filmmakers are nonetheless concerned with at the least one of many live-action properties apiece. As an illustration, DeBlois directed the live-action Methods to Prepare Your Dragon, turning into the uncommon director to have the chance to reimagine their very own property in a brand new medium.
Dean DeBlois additionally directed the 2 animated sequels to Methods to Prepare Your Dragon, with out Sanders.
Whereas Sanders didn’t direct both remake, he’s concerned in each of them. As was the case with the earlier two animated installments, he was an govt producer on 2025’s Methods to Prepare Your Dragon. Whereas he didn’t direct or produce the Disney remake, he labored very carefully on that undertaking as nicely, as he reprised his voice function as Sew within the Lilo & Sew solid, making him considered one of only a few actors to play the identical function in each a Disney live-action remake and the animated film from which it’s tailored.