The Wild Robot’s $200 Million Success Makes It Perfect To Copy How To Train Your Dragon’s Path

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The Wild Robot has proven to be a success for DreamWorks Animation, and its performance indicates its a perfect choice to follow How To Train Your Dragon‘s path as a franchise. DreamWorks found massive success with the How To Train Your Dragon movies, as Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois kicked off a trilogy of animated films that made over $1 billion at the box office. Although Sanders did not direct the two sequels, his involvement in bringing The Wild Robot to theaters invited plenty of comparisons to How To Train Your Dragon.

DreamWorks has to be pleased with its performance just as the original How To Train Your Dragon was a strong starting point. The Wild Robot‘s rave reviews – 98% Critics and Audience Scores on Rotten Tomatoes – helped catapult the film to box office success, with its current total worldwide eclipsing $200 million. While that’s well shy of how much money the first How To Train Your Dragon made in 2010, it still sets up The Wild Robot as a property worth greater exploration. DreamWorks should even look to copy How To Train Your Dragon when plotting the franchise’s future.

The Wild Robot Is Already Well On Its Way To Getting A Trilogy

There Are More Wild Robot Books To Adapt

DreamWorks is in a good spot with The Wild Robot copying How To Train Your Dragon‘s franchise plans, as there are more books ready to adapt. While there were 12 How To Train Your Dragon books to pull from, there are only three The Wild Robot books to tackle. DreamWorks has already confirmed that The Wild Robot‘s sequel is in development, which will adapt the novel, The Wild Robot Escapes. This announcement puts the franchise one step closer to becoming a big screen trilogy, just like How To Train Your Dragon.

Roz holds Brightbill in the palm of her hand as he imprints on her. They're edited over the book covers of The Wild Robot and The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown.

The Wild Robot Escapes: What Happens In The Movie’s Sequel Book

As a movie based on a book, The Wild Robot already has a sequel plan in the form of The Wild Robot Escapes. This is what happens next in Roz’s story.

Based on the strong performance of the first film, there is reason to believe that The Wild Robot 2 will be an even bigger success. That’s what happened to DreamWorks with How To Train Your Dragon, as the second installment was the highest-grossing entry. A large jump for the Wild Robot sequel’s box office would guarantee that DreamWorks concludes the trilogy of animated features based on Peter Brown’s books. Thankfully, the third book The Wild Robot Protects released in 2023 and is ready to adapt so the franchise joins How To Train Your Dragon as a great modern DreamWorks trilogy.

The Wild Robot Could Join How To Train Your Dragon As A Live-Action Remake From DreamWorks

DreamWorks Is Venturing Into Live-Action Remakes At Last

Hiccup leading an army of dragonriders in How To Train Your Dragon The Hidden World (2019)

After the conclusion of the animated trilogy, DreamWorks surprised audiences with the announcement of a How To Train Your Dragon live-action remake coming in 2025. This is the first time one of the animated studio’s films is being remade in live-action. While no other remakes have been announced, the likely success of the new How To Train Your Dragon will leave DreamWorks looking for other properties that can get the live-action treatment. The studio’s biggest franchises like Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Trolls, and The Boss Baby would be difficult to do.

How To Train Your Dragon’s live-action remake comes 6 years after the trilogy concluded and 15 years after it began

The Wild Robot could then be tapped to be DreamWorks’ next live-action remake project. It would require a significant amount of CGI to bring Roz and the woodland creatures to life, but the property would be easier to do than many others. The Wild Robot getting the live-action remake treatment down the road makes sense then for DreamWorks. If that happens, The Wild Robot will practically copy what DreamWorks did with the How To Train Your Dragon franchise – minus the various animated TV show spinoffs.