Hugh Grant recently discussed the box office underperformance of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. He believes that the studio's failure to gauge general audience interest in the subject matter beforehand may have been a major reason for the film's lackluster results.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was released in spring 2023, directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, and starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Regé-Jean Page, and Hugh Grant.
The film had a production budget of $150 million and grossed just over $208 million worldwide. Although it received some positive reviews, its commercial performance was insufficient to justify a sequel of similar scale.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hugh Grant stated that it was a good film and found the box office results perplexing. He questioned why the studio didn't conduct market research beforehand, suggesting that many viewers may have simply decided not to buy tickets because they "didn't want to see a movie about that game."
The original article also suggests another possibility: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves might have been released too early. The film hit theaters in spring 2023, while Baldur's Gate 3 wasn't officially launched until August of that year, later earning the title of Game of the Year. The article speculates that if the film had been released a few months later, it might have benefited from the hype surrounding Baldur's Gate 3 and gained more attention.