TOY SALES BECOME BOX-OFFICE PREDICTOR FOR “DRAGON”

How to Train Your Dragon producer Bonnie Arnold says that after the premiere of the DreamWorks Animation movie she felt confident that it was not going to be the disappointment that box-office writers made it out to be. The film opened with just $43.3 million, but has dropped relatively little in subsequent weeks and last weekend came close to regaining first place. But Arnold told Jim Hill, whose JimHillMedia.com website mostly tracks Disney films, that she realized the movie would catch hold when she saw the amount of merchandise it was moving. “I had animators who work here at DreamWorks who were driving to all the Wal-Marts in LA, trying to find a plush Toothless [the dragon in the title] to purchase,” Arnold told Hill. “But they told me that this character was sold out at all the stores that they’d visited. Which told me that audiences had already connected with that character and our movie.” Arnold said that she expects the total gross for the movie to shoot towards “infinity and beyond.” She then added, “Given that I produced the original Toy Story, I’m the only person at DreamWorks who’s actually allowed to make that joke.”