Only half of D&D fans expect the movie to be any good, survey suggests
But they’ll still be going to see it.
Dungeons & Dragons fans seemingly have tempered expectations for upcoming D&D movie Honor Among Thieves, but that won’t stop them going to see it at the cinema, according to a recent survey.
A survey of more than 2,500 people who described themselves as fans of Dungeons & Dragons, Stranger Things or both found that half expect the upcoming big-screen adaptation to be “terrible”, “meh” or “disappointing”, or aren’t sure what to expect. The other 50% expect Honor Among Thieves to be “ok”, “good” or “great”. One in ten of those surveyed apparently weren’t even aware of a new Dungeons & Dragons movie.
Merchandise maker Merchoid’s survey found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that those who call themselves fans of both D&D and Stranger Things were most keen to see the film, with 80% of such respondents planning to see it. For those who were fans of only D&D, that number fell to 68%.
Only around a tenth of those who are self-professed fans of D&D, but not Stranger Things, expect Honor Among Thieves to be “great”, with slightly over a fifth optimistic it will be “good”. 14% expect it to be just “okay”.
About the same number of D&D-only fans who expect the movie to be great instead predict it will be “terrible”, with half that number setting their expectations at a middling “meh”. Only 3% expect to be disappointed by Honor Among Thieves. Just under a third admitted they have no expectations at all, or don’t know what to expect.
Fans of both D&D and Stranger Things were a bit more optimistic, with a quarter expecting Honor Among Thieves to be good, and almost 16% predicting it will be “great”. Only 1% believe it will be terrible, with 2% preparing for disappointment. Close to a third said they aren’t sure what to expect.
Despite the mixed expectations, most of those surveyed said they were planning to see Honor Among Thieves when it hits cinema screens next month. Over two-thirds of just D&D fans said they’d be watching the new film, with four in five fans of both D&D and Stranger Things planning to check it out.
Close to half of the D&D and Stranger Things fans that expect the movie to be bad, disappointing or terrible apparently still plan to watch it, with over 40% saying they’d be headed to the cinema. That number fell to just under a third for those who were only fans of D&D.
Slightly less than half - 48% - of those who said they were only a fan of Stranger Things plan to see the film upon its release. In addition, nearly a tenth of Stranger Things fans said they wanted to start playing Dungeons & Dragons as the result of Honor Among Thieves’ release.
Almost a third of those surveyed said they had been playing Dungeons & Dragons for decades, with another third having played for between one and 10 years, and one in ten people playing for less than a year.
More than half of those surveyed who don’t currently play D&D said they hoped to play in the future, but not because of Stranger Things. Actual play series such as Critical Role, along with TV show The Big Bang Theory, were given as reasons they wanted to pick up the tabletop RPG.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is due for release on March 31st. In development for around a decade, Game Night directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s adaptation marks the first big-screen outing for the veteran fantasy RPG since 2000’s ill-fated movie featuring Jeremy Irons, which saw two direct-to-home release sequels.
Among the new film’s star-studded party is Chris Pine, Regé Jean-Page, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Hugh Grant and Sophia Lillis, who are due to embark on an adventure across the RPG’s Forgotten Realms setting.