Dungeons & Dragons Is A Complete Disaster Despite Being Really Good

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is officially out. For long-time fans of the franchise, this is an exciting time. Dungeons & Dragons has one of the most compelling stories ever created. The lore dates back to the 1970s, and the only thing stopping you is your imagination. The 2023 movie is set to take things a step further into reality. The film stars Chris Pine and Sophia Lillis as Edgin Darvis and Doric. This star-studded cast band together and embarks on the ultimate journey to retrieve a long-lost relic.

As you can imagine, the story is quite chaotic. Like an authentic Dungeons & Dragons game, the movie is filled with crazy plots and twists to keep movie watchers on their feet. The film strives very hard to be fan service. With an IP as unique as this one, where the player creates the story, satisfying people is a challenging goal. Throughout the announcement, reactions from the fans have been interesting to observe. Although most are optimistic about the movie, you do have some who did not like certain creative choices.

Dungeons & Dragons Fail To Impress At The Box Office

The box office numbers for Dungeons & Dragons are interesting. With a budget of $150 million, it is clear that Paramount Pictures is banking on this film to succeed. With a budget this large, the box office numbers need to impress. They must make at least $450 million for this movie to break even. You usually need to at least triple the movie budget to make your money back. This is to factor in advertising and marketing.

Currently, Dungeons & Dragons had a reasonably decent opening. They kicked things off in North America with $38.5 million. They further managed to boost those numbers to $72 million globally. Now, this might sound like a significant number, and it is, but it could be more impressive. With this type of opening, the movie is at least trending to make some profit. However, the profit margins might be pretty small.

The film has one thing going for it, and fans love it. Most agree that the movie did a great job with its storytelling. Unfortunately, fans enjoying the film do not always translate to box office success. The one thing that is currently counting against this movie is massive box office competition. There are some big-name titles to now compete with, and that competition will only rise. On 5 April, Super Mario will be released, and most agree that this might take away from Dungeons & Dragons. As the weekend approaches, many families might watch the Nintendo classic instead. Those who choose to see Dungeons & Dragons will have a good time.

The Dungeons & Dragons Quest To Emasculate Men

However, the Dungeons & Dragons movie comes with controversy. A while ago, the writers of this movie did an interview where they went over their creative process. In the interview, they revealed that they intentionally emasculated all men. Now, why they thought this would be a good idea to say out loud, I do not know. Considering that your core fanbase is men, you should have kept that a secret. However, the writers insist it is for something other than woke reasons. Instead, they say they did it because it is funny.

The logic seems to be that the women are always the damsels while the men fight. This time around, they decided to reverse the roles. That sounds a little wonky, but it is their creative choice. Ultimately, I do not have an issue with it as long as the story is good. I am a big boy who can handle a few jokes at my expense and even laugh at them. The writers did make a bit more of a controversial statement when they said, “We just Love emasculating leading men.” That is a statement to try to provoke purposefully.

It is a classic tactic that we always see and works excellently. The moment they make the statement, it immediately dominates headlines. In the long run, I don’t know how effective this type of marketing is, but it works in the short term. You alienate one part of the fanbase to attract the other. “Let’s alienate a few men to attract a few women.” Only time will tell if this is effective at the box office.

How Hasbro Destroyed Dungeons & Dragons

However, the hate for Dungeons & Dragons goes beyond just one interview. The parent company behind the IP has been pushing fans for quite some time now. Most are unhappy with what Hasbro has done over the last few years. Many feel like they have been destroying their IPs. A while ago, a leaked report revealed that Hasbro is not too happy with its profits. They want a more significant cut of independent Dungeons & Dragons creators’ profits.

Hasbro decided that any creator making $50,000 yearly must submit a report. Any company that makes over $750,000 a year must pay royalties. As you can imagine, fans did not like this rule change at all. Many creators rallied together and signed a petition to try and stop this from happening. At this point, Dungeons & Dragons still need to follow this rule change. Even the executive producer of D&D stated that this change harmed the fanbase.

However, D&D is not the only IP that Hasbro has been messing with over the last few years. Fans are also not very happy with the state of Magic The Gathering. Fans have been carrying this resentment within them for quite some time. Therefore,, it is only natural that they will try to lash out in some way. For many, this might mean not seeing the latest movie. The resentment towards Hasbro could contribute to the initial low Box Office numbers. However, it is still possible for these numbers to go up in the coming days and over the weekend.

Conclusion

Ultimately, only time will tell exactly how things will play out for this movie. Right now, it does have one positive thing going for it. Most who watch it seem to be enjoying it. This is always a tremendous positive for any movie. However, more than good reviews are needed with such a massive budget. You also need to make money. Any profit loss will likely kill the chances of a sequel. Right now, it is still very early days, and we have seen movies in the past recover as the weeks go on. Their most trying time will come over the weekend.

If we see a drop in moviegoers watching this movie, then it will only get worse from that point on. Starting tomorrow, they will be going head-to-head with Super Mario. This is going to take a lot of work for them. The competition at the box office is already quite intense. We are in a golden period with movies. The lineup so far over the last few months has been strong. The competition is set to only get stronger from this point forward.