For the first time in 2025, the box office is going to have some sort of pulse as Universal’s DreamWorks Animated title Dog Man is set to send families back into theaters after 2024’s holiday Lion King-Mufasa-Wicked juggernaut with an opening in excess of $20M+.
Booked at 3,800 theaters, Dog Man is based on the Dav Pilkey Scholastic graphic novels which have sold more than 60M copies and have been translated in 47 languages. He’s also the author behind the Captain Underpants books; that brand adapted into a 2017 20th Century Fox movie which opened to $23.8M and legged out to $73.9M stateside.
In Dog Man, a faithful police dog and his human police officer owner are injured together on the job, however, a harebrained but life-saving surgery fuses the two of them together and Dog Man is born. Dog Man is sworn to protect and serve—and fetch, sit and roll over. As Dog Man embraces his new identity and strives to impress his Chief (Lil Rel Howery, Get Out, Free Guy), he must stop the pretty evil plots of feline supervillain Petey the Cat (Pete Davidson; Saturday Night Live, The King of Staten Island). Petey’s latest plan is to clone himself, creating the kitten Lil Petey, to double his ability to do crime stuff. Things get complicated, though, when Lil Petey forges an unexpected bond with Dog Man. Emmy winner Peter Hastings directs. The film is produced by Karen Foster (Spirit Untamed), who served as co-producer on DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon.
Currently Dog Man aimed at young boys and girls and is tracking ala Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie ($22.7M opening) and DC League of Super Pets ($23M). Previews start Thursday at 2PM.
Also hitting theaters is New Line’s horror movie Companion from BoulderLight Pictures, the producers behind the micro horror hit Barbarian. The R-Rated Drew Hancock (scribe of TV series Suburgatory) written and directed $10M production which has a $29M P&A spend is expected to do between $8M-$10M with a chance for upside based on its great 92% Rotten Tomatoes critics score. Previews start Thursday at 3PM. Starring Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid and Harvey Guillén, the pic follows an enigmatic young woman, Iris, who creates a lot of havoc for her friends during a weekend trip to his lakeside estate. To say any more would spoil the twists and turns of the movie. Pic is booked at 3,200 locations and will play in Imax, Dolby Cinema, PLFs, dine-ins and drive-ins. Of those who are planning to pay to see Companion on the big screen, it’s men and women under 35 per Quorum. We’ll see if this film catches any heat.
Briarcliff Entertainment also has the North Korea conflict U.S. military movie Valiant One from director Steve Barnett in 1,500 locations.