I sat through the closing credits while a handful of people muttered about spoilers and a much bigger handful checked weekend grosses on their phones. You could feel a movie that wanted to be a franchise wobble on its feet. I left the theater thinking: someone will have to be brave enough to try again.
Paramount executives watched the weekend numbers rise and fall on a single dashboard.
I’ll be blunt: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves earned $208 million (€193 million) worldwide on a reported $150 million (€140 million) budget, and that math scared Paramount off the sequel. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein wrote and directed the 2023 film and say a second script already exists, but studios buy future risk, not optimism.
The timing was brutal. The movie opened four days before the blockbuster Super Mario movie and smashed into its box-office tailwind like a speedboat into a freighter. Add a Wizards of the Coast license change that triggered a segment of the fanbase to boycott, and a marketing campaign that didn’t broaden the audience beyond existing players, and you have a film that looked smaller than it actually was.
Will there be a Dungeons & Dragons 2?
Short answer: maybe — but it won’t be Paramount unless numbers or strategy change. Hasbro owns the IP and, according to Goldstein on The Playlist’s Discourse Podcast, Hasbro is shopping for another studio partner to take the sequel forward. That puts the property back where it often belongs: in the hands of corporate dealmakers and creative gatekeepers at companies like Netflix, Amazon, or Disney—platforms that have shown appetite for franchise-building beyond theatrical windows.
A Hasbro executive sat across a conference table weighing brand value against studio appetite.
I’ve watched toy companies pitch media before: they want both brand lift and revenue. Hasbro believes the film has legs and is actively searching for a new studio partner to fund and distribute the sequel. You should expect conversations with studios and streamers that already work with big IP—think Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or the Disney machine—and with Wizards of the Coast in the room as a rights holder and community stakeholder.
Talent is a factor too. Daley and Goldstein are attached and publicly hopeful, which matters. Studios buy track records and control of fan sentiment; Hasbro can point to critical praise and a dedicated fanbase as bargaining chips. But the numbers sting: $208 million (€193 million) gross on a $150 million (€140 million) budget leaves less margin for error, and the next studio will demand a clearer path to profit.
Why did Honor Among Thieves underperform at the box office?
The short list: brutal timing, fandom friction, and marketing that didn’t explain to non-players why they should care. You can argue that the film’s tone—a mix of heist comedy and fantasy—made it hard to place in a trailer. The fan boycott after Wizards of the Coast changed the official gaming license was a public-relations headwind that no amount of charm could fully absorb.
At a marketing agency, teams argued over audience maps and creative hooks.
You and I both know that a sequel’s fortunes hinge on a few strategic choices: release window, community relations, and sharper messaging. The first film under-communicated to casual viewers who might otherwise have come for stars and laughs. If a new studio wants to take this on, expect a tighter campaign aimed at mainstream family and adventure audiences, and aggressive calendar planning to avoid direct clashes with established tentpoles.
There’s also the community rebuild. Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro will have to calm or re-engage players who felt alienated. That’s PR, sure, but it’s also product stewardship: boards, rulebooks, and licensing moves shape brand sentiment just as much as a trailer does.
Which studios could pick up Dungeons & Dragons 2?
My read: streaming platforms with in-house marketing and international reach are the likeliest candidates. Netflix and Amazon have already proven willing to spend on franchise IP and to tolerate longer-term profit timelines. Disney could, but it’s choosy. Universal/Illumination might look if they want to diversify. Paramount passing doesn’t kill the project; it just forces Hasbro to court partners who value multi-platform returns and brand synergy.
The path forward feels practical if messy: a studio partner that pays, a clearer marketing play, and calmer community relations. Marketing must stop being as fragile as a house of cards and start selling the movie as a crowd-pleasing adventure that anyone can enter. I’ll keep watching the trades, the podcast interviews, and the deal filings—will a new partner step up and treat the sequel like a second chance or another calculated skip?