‘Dawn Treader’ Nearing Caspian’s Box Office

Although most fans are able to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on Blu-ray and DVD, it has still not quite completed its box office run. BoxOfficeMojo’s most recent update puts the film’s total at $415.6m worldwide. This is still short of Prince Caspian ($420m) and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ($745m).

The film’s domestic total ($104m) is still well below the other two films ($291 for LWW, and $141 for PC). Internationally, VDT has grossed $311m, which tops PC’s $278m, but falls short of LWW’s $453m.

The most recent issue of Variety includes a familiar image of the Dawn Treader with the box office total. View it here.

104 Responses

  1. LOTRANDNARNIAFAN says:

    Alright. Some more good news for us Narnia fans

  2. Musgrave says:

    Well at least Dawn Treader was not a complete flop at the box office. Almost there!

  3. ChristProclamer says:

    WOW. I never thought the film would do this well. I guess that's good for the future films. A possible budget hike will provide greater opportunities for the next installment.

    Keep coming, Magician's Nephew.

  4. Son of Adam says:

    Great! (:

  5. eclipse14 says:

    Oh, PLEASE MAKE IT!!!

  6. Rilian The Disenchanted says:

    Looks like Walden and Fox are happy with the boxoffice and are proud enough to share it with the world! This franchise ain't dead yet! Voyage of The Dawn Treader stabilized the Boxoffice after a studio change, now it's up to Magician's Nephew to fully reignite the series.

  7. Reepicheep says:

    This is painful watching it get SO DARN CLOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  8. comedian says:

    AND NOW I OWE HOLLY 250 BUCKS. GREAT. JUST GREAT.

  9. Mayor Wilkins says:

    This movie is so much more enjoyable and moving than the second.
    Yet another example of the critics being really dense and audiences shunning anything that has any connection whatsoever to do with Jesus Christ.

    I'll champion this movie's greatness until my last breath. 😀

  10. Narnia Fan says:

    wow!! the dawn treader is gaining lots of money!!!! this is amazing!!!! we already have the dvd and the movie is still making money!!! just amazing!!! GO NARNIA!!!! the narnia franchise will never die!!! they are such awesome books and movies!!! Magicians Nephew !! you are really close!!!!

  11. Jillhope says:

    Just keep going, just keep going! ♫I do belive in boxoffice reports, I do, I do!♫

  12. Jillhope: I love your comment! 😉

    Keep going Narnia!! 🙂 WHOOHOO

  13. Not bad. It could have done better at the box office if they stuck close to the book. It was a good movie, but it could have been better. Voyage is my favorite book in the series, but for movies, it's not. But I'm glad for the box office numbers.

  14. Anneliese says:

    I'm surprised to hear VDT hasn't made as much at the box office as PC did – I don't usually keep track of those sorts of things, but I did consider VDT a better movie than PC. I'm not convinced that the movie would have done better if it had stayed closer to the film, though. I would hope that book purists would still go see the movie, even if it didn't meet their expectations. And the only reason I didn't go see the movie more than once is because theater tickets are so expensive. 😛

  15. WhiteRider says:

    Japan needs to bring in just over 4 million more to surpass PC and it just might be able to do that.

  16. always narnian says:

    Hmmm…….I wonder why LWW did the best???? BECAUSE MAYBE IT FOLLOWED THE BOOK?

  17. Fireflower says:

    KEEP GOING! ALMOST THERE!!!

  18. Braden Woodburn says:

    That really isn't all that bad. We should face the fact that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will not beat out The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe when it comes to worldwide. If so, it would be amazing. Still, it is only 5 million dollars short from Prince Caspian so I think that there is time to get that passed. By the way, I've watched Dawn Treader like 5 times since it came out on DVD! 😀

  19. claireyy says:

    woot! almost there! i love the movie! Hopefully they'll make MN : )

  20. Arvan says:

    Thank you. Not.

  21. The economy these days is extremely dissapointing. We'll be very lucky if MN is made.
    At least we received some good news.

  22. Kirsta says:

    yes! watching LWW is almost like reading the book, PC is only sort of like the book, and in my opinion, VDT is not like the book at all. The viewers know that, the numbers show the difference!

  23. Narnia magic world. says:

    Acabo de ver Box Office Mojo y total en todo el mundo cambio de 415.6 a 414.6 que raro.

  24. Fireagle says:

    I agree. It seems that the closer the movie is to the book, the better the numbers are. Although, if you look at it, PC and VDT are about as far off the book.
    So…
    maybe we still have hope for the numbers.(Come on, come on, make the next one already.) 🙂

  25. Aslan's #1 fan says:

    Way to go Mayor!!!
    (ignore Arvan's comment)
    I'm right with you, the story was powerfully vibrant as it tells of Christ, and shows how we as Christians SHOULD do after hearing Christ's commands!!!Do them! 🙂

  26. Moonwood says:

    I have seen VDT several times now…
    The editing is so bad, it drives me crazy; and so many things cut out– plus infantilized… but what they did do is very beautiful ( especially between Eustace and Reepicheep ), and has made me cry the five times iv'e seen it. It is a definite improvement on the last one.
    At least the producers are doing something different wrong every time. The next one, in theory, should be the best.( if not, shame on the producers )

  27. Moonwood says:

    True, Aslan's #1 fan !

  28. Moonwood says:

    They need a writer that will adapt the book as closely as possible, not what they personally feel the story should be.
    Some things need to be changed to adapt to the screen, but this does NOT excuse the terrible unnecessary adaptations that have been made. Some writer's ego ( 'This is MY version of this classic…) are responsible for that, along with producers who accepted it.

  29. About Jesus Christ?

  30. GlimGlum says:

    I thought that VDT would reach $410 million so exceeding that is good news… for Narnia movies and The Magician's Nephew. (I hope.) 🙂

  31. narnian resident says:

    Now that VDT out on dvd now, hopefully there'll be more coming in. come on, Narnia fans!

  32. LatinLoverZ says:

    it's true… :S

  33. Arvan says:

    No. About the idea that if we don't like VDT we don't like Christianity in film. Actually, PC did a better job conveying the book's theme of Faith than VDT did it's theme of Temptation (which wasn't even a theme in the book). VDT is very humanist and makes Aslan (or God) a side-character. In the book, he's very important; he's hardly referred to in the film.

  34. Arvan says:

    Amen to that!

  35. Moonwood says:

    Ohhhh…

  36. always narnian says:

    It's ridiculous! The allegory is so twisted. They made it into a message of 'believing in yourself' instead of trusting in Aslan (represents Christ). If you notice, the closer they stayed true to the Spirit of Narnia (LWW), the allegory went pretty well (LWW), and it followed the book pretty well (LWW :]) then it does better. *sigh* They say they can't say it better than Lewis….But their movies have said different!

  37. I'm surprised and happy at the same time that VDT is still making money at the box office since it's already out on DVD and Blu-ray. And I would be even more surprised if it ends up catching up to the amount of money that PC made.

  38. elton says:

    these are great news

  39. Mayor Wilkins says:

    Umm…. wow.

    "About the idea that if we don’t like VDT we don’t like Christianity in film."

    Not exactly what I was trying to say.

    "Actually, PC did a better job conveying the book’s theme of Faith than VDT did it’s theme of Temptation"

    I have to respectfully (and strongly) disagree.
    PC's themes aside, the theme of Temptation in VDT is very strong.
    The Green Mist is nothing short of a Satanic presence (the physical form of the evil was a giant serpent, Satan's most notorious shape) attempting to turn people away from God. Ultimately, it shows how strong temptation can be, but also, the weakness at its core. The line "Just give in" is very telling. It is almost pleading for Edmund to stop resisting.

    This has everything to do with the free will of humanity. No matter what it did, the mist (and Satan) could never make any one of them commit a sin. Pride, Greed, Envy, Vanity, even Lust ("That you're a man? I can make you that…") are all used by the mist at some point. All are subjects of potential temptations the characters face and ultimately resist by holding on to their individual strengths and their faith in Aslan.

    This means that Aslan, therefore, is not a side character at all. He is there in spirit much of the time. His voice is stern when Lucy steals the book page and he later saves her from making a terrible mistake on the ship. Notice also that whenever Aslan was near, the mist tended to slink away.

    Later Lucy prays for help and Aslan (in the form of the white albatross) cuts through the black smoke to remind her that he is always watching over, them and the darkness really isn't that strong after all.

    Finally, Aslan appears in person to assure Lucy that he has another name (Jesus) in our world and that one day they will meet again.

    Aslan not appearing in person throughout much of the film demonstrates to me that even though you can't see God, he is always watching over you, guiding and protecting you in the face of your worst fears and challenges. You have to have faith in him and believe he is there with you. In your darkest hour, he will remind you of his presence in some form.

    Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that I very much enjoyed this movie more than the second. I don't understand why it made less money here in the states. But I think it is a beautiful film. Despite all the backlash, it feels more Narnian than the first two. There was even less of a LOTR influence this time. This movie really felt Narnian to me.

    Cheers.

  40. MasterBJ says:

    In reality it has already caught up to PC since its gross income is 33 million more than PC.

  41. Arvan says:

    Looks like a very speculated opinion. You're entitled to think what you will, but I can't forget that Doug Gresham said the Green Mist was "Narnia's natural reaction to the introduction of evil to that world".

    The Temptation theme was more obvious than PC's Faith, but that's only because there is a blatant lack of subtlety. The "Temptation" theme is so in-your-face that it makes me sick. It's not even a major theme in the book, and here they talk about it in every scene!

  42. Mayor Wilkins says:

    Speculation, yes. We can only speculate because the mist is very much a mysterious thing.
    It's also my personal interpretation of events in the film version, which I expect no one else to accept if they don't want to. I used my imagination and what I know of temptation to come up with it.

    I firmly believe that The Green Mist is a weapon of Satan or a visual indicator of his presence. He is the villain of the film in my book.

    "Doug Gresham said the Green Mist was "Narnia’s natural reaction to the introduction of evil to that world."

    Right. It was the world reacting to the presence of evil. But Gresham never specified what evil presence it was. It could be that The Devil is so toxic and so evil a creature that his presence in the world of Narnia oozes out a green mist whenever he is at work. We cannot see when the devil is tempting us, but at least Narnians have the advantage of a visual indicator that they are being tempted by evil.

    Just a theory. Not looking to start a big argument.
    I will respect opinions if I am given the same respect in return. 😉

  43. Mayor Wilkins says:

    The full explanation (reposted)

    The Green Mist is probably The Devil, or at least, a visual symbol of his presence.
    Just a theory. Douglas Gresham said that the mist was a visual symbol of the nature of Narnia reacting to the evil. Evil is so foreign to Narnia that the world makes it visible so you can see that the evil is there. Well, the Devil would probably be so foreign to Narnia that he causes his presence there to ooze out a green mist. So that Narnians can see they are in danger of being tempted.

    Consider the following:

    * The Green Mist knew both Lucy and Edmund’s fears/temptations/inner-most desires almost as well as Aslan (even on earth).

    * The Green Mist is raw evil. It isn’t even a living thing, it’s pure darkness. There’s only one being in scripture that could possibly match such a thing. Further, The Green Mist could not understand good emotion, nor could it grasp when the heroes didn’t give in. This is evident when the White Witch said "Just give in" with some irritation. It could not understand why the temptations didn’t work.

    * Think of color psychology. In the Middle Ages, green was considered the color of calamity and evil, and was associated with the Devil himself.

    * Taking souls. A lot of people here say that The Green Mist taking the slaves from the Lone Island makes no sense. In my view, they are right. But only because it makes no LOGICAL sense. The assumption is that there was a concrete reason to take these lost souls away. You would be wrong. There is no concrete reason that would make sense to humanity.

    The Green Mist was taking the souls from the Lone Island slave traders and terrorizing the Lone Islands because it could. Simply because it was evil. There’s no other reason. I know that might sound odd, but pure evil needs no logical reason to commit evil acts. Purely evil things likely do evil for evil’s sake. To me, that kind of evil you can’t understand is very frightening. The Devil is sometimes depicted as a collector of innocent souls. Souls are collected mostly for the sake of collecting.

    * As the White Witch is Satan’s "Lawful prey," he uses her image to personify Edmund’s temptation. This is in keeping with what Douglas Gresham told us about the witch’s character. The Devil isn’t stupid. He’s not gonna tempt you with ugly things. The Devil dresses up his temptations in beauty. So Jadis is a visual symbol of Satan’s favorite temptations. This would explain why he used her image. To put it in simple, fun language, Satan "Owns the rights" to the soul of The White Witch. He can use her whenever he wants. This is probably why he used her shape the most often.

    NEW: Having watched the film again several times, I have noticed that although the White Witch looks beautiful, there are indicators that her beauty is artificial–indicators that she is corrupt. These include the nightmarish appearance of her hair and the unnatural green of her eyes, which comes across as inhuman and haunting. Even Satan's conjuring of a beautiful person is….not quite right.

    * Free will. We are given the free will to chose between good and evil. Never once was The Green Mist able to force any of the characters into evil. It had to tempt them. Satan’s ability to do evil on earth and in Narnia seems to be dependent on the free choice of the world’s creatures.

    * "That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world."
    Interesting that a sea serpent attacked the ship. And what was the serpent made up of? When Lucy shot her arrow into it, you could see Green Mist coming off of it. When Caspian chopped off part of its jaws, the piece evaporated into Green Mist. The serpent was the physical form of the mist. The serpent has long been considered one of the most common shapes of the devil. What color was the serpent? Green.

    * Aslan’s power smote the serpent down.— I think that’s enough said. The devil remains no match for God.

    So basically, in my own view, The Green Mist is a visual indicator of Satan’s presence in Narnia. He is not shown, but he uses representatives. We see his temptations personified as The White Witch (likely one of his most favorite evildoers in Narnia) and we see the raw, ugly terror of his wrath personified in The Sea Serpent. However, the serpent is bested through the faith and honor of the crew. And ultimately it is cast down by Aslan’s good magic and the holiness of his table.

    However…. I believe that the evil is not done. It will do its work through another witch. And I don’t have to tell you who that is. But to me, The Green Mist is perhaps the most terrifying and most powerful of all the films villains thus far.

  44. Rob W. Case says:

    That is great news, especially considering that Prince Caspian had a much better marketing campaign than VDT. Word of mouth is powerful.

  45. High Queene Shelly Belly says:

    you should have trusted in aslan! )

  46. High Queene Shelly Belly says:

    i think your on to something, mayor. i've noticed i am often surrounded by green mist when im tempted to sin. i wondered what that was. lol

  47. High Queene Shelly Belly says:

    i had no real prorblem with LWW. the next 2 had glaringly obvious problems that were surprising for professional productions, let's hope they can get it together for N4.

  48. High Queene Shelly Belly says:

    mine's in the mail somewhere! the waiting is torture!

  49. Mayor Wilkins says:

    LOL!!!
    Yeah and there's always green mist swirling around my second piece of chocolate cake. What's that about? 😛

  50. PuddleCheep says:

    Even though I'm glad that VDT's numbers are high, I wish that it didn't make as much, just to let Fox and Walden NOT to change the story so much! An absolute crime! But I still got the 3 disc Bluray, DVD, and Digital Copy. Hopefully MN will be closer to the book and blow me away, in the opposite direction that VDT took me.

  51. Arvan says:

    The Devil has to be pretty darn powerful to be THAT omnipresent. He's even in OTHER worlds? He's only a fallen angel. I refuse to even theoretically believe that possibility.

  52. Arvan says:

    I hate to be a pessimist, but I just have to say this: don't forget that Japan is in the middle of an enormous disaster! Four/five million doesn't sound like much here, in our giant country. But over there, that's a lot more money, AND, there are bigger issues in Japan right now. Hope on, but don't get your hopes TOO high.

  53. I was hopeing they would have kept a little bit closer to the book. I was looking forward to seeing the feast with the Dufflepuds. All the same, you do have to take into consideration that they may have not been able to fit it all in one film. It was still good any how. I think people shouldn't be so harsh on the adaptation, it's just one person's veiw. We still have the book. 🙂

  54. I think one reason why LWW did so much better is that they set the bar high, and it had a more serious deep feel. VDT was a bit more "childish" and they could have made things more intense in action and emotion.

  55. Mayor Wilkins says:

    As you wish.

  56. Not Of This World says:

    This is great news! But where is Narnia still out?

  57. Mayor Wilkins says:

    LWW did well for a number of reasons. But I think the main one was….

    It is the most well-known of the books. Even those who have never heard of the other chronicles have probably read this one in school at some point. LWW is also the only book to have more than three versions. Chances are if you haven't read the book before, maybe you've seen a previous version.
    1. Disney Movie
    2. BBC Series
    3. Cartoon
    4. 1960s Series
    as well as certain playhouse reproductions on stage.

    None of the other novels can claim to be that well-known, reproduced or popular.

  58. Liz says:

    It's still out in Japan.
    Great this film is doing well!

  59. Josh says:

    I agree that Prince Caspain's spiritual themes were handled better. For one, they make Aslan much more important and God-like. They could not defeat Miraz without Aslan's help. Voyage of the Dawn Treader portrayed a very humanistic Aslan who, in addition to being reduced to the sidelines, was only there to encourage the kid's and to tell them cheesy stuff about "being yourself" and casting away any doubts that the kid's have faults. Also the kids overcome the Green Mist by putting the swords together, not by Aslan's help.

  60. Dylan says:

    I'm surprised at how bad it is doing in the US
    I am happy that it is doing well internationally