What does becoming a cult hit do for you in 2026? For the past forty years or so, a movie that never found its audience at the box office could be alternately discovered through rental stores or cable TV airings, and after that fact, become profitable and potentially drum up enough confidence for a sequel. Then streaming took over and that changed.
It’s not that it’s HARDER for looked-over movies to catch on. If anything, it’s easier — you don’t have to drive to a brick-and-mortar location, the movie can be found right in your house. And social media makes it easier for word of mouth to spread. The problem is that the streaming market is far less profitable than the physical video market was in its prime. The number of people who are going to spend money on that specific movie has dwindled, so to an executive, it still doesn’t appear to be making anything.
This is the situation Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is stuck in. I don’t know anyone who has seen this movie and hated it. Everyone wonders “Why didn’t this catch on?” and for the answer, you have to realize the circumstances it was released under three years ago. “It was very much a product of not-so-great timing when the first movie came out,” says John Francis Daley, who appeared with co-writer and co-director Jonathan Goldstein on a recent episode of a podcast to discuss whether a sequel was possible.
“It came out four days before the Super Mario movie, which broke records,” Daley said. “It came out a month after Wizards of the Coast changed the official gaming license, prompting many D&D fans to boycott the game, and I don’t think the marketing did enough to tell people who weren’t already fans that this movie might be for them. Yeah, so it was a perfect storm of all of those elements.” Wizards eventually bent to public ire and corrected the license issue, but by then the movie was out of theaters.
But according to Goldstein, there’s still hope. Hasbro, who owns Wizards, is always looking for movie deals to make from its properties, and would be nuts not to pursue something that has a fanbase. It just might not be with Paramount next time. “I think Hasbro is a big believer in it, and if they can figure out a studio partner to make it work, they’ll want to proceed,” Goldstein said. We know nothing of the logistics required to release a sequel under a different studio. Hopefully there’s such a thing as studios other than Paramount by the time serious discussions start.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is currently on Paramount+ and Netflix, and if you want to support the movie, buy the Blu-Ray and the prequel novels.
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