Hollywood can be a harsh place at the best of times, so at the end of the day, does anybody really care about the second best-reviewed entry in the history of an entire subgenre, even one that’s fast approaching breaking point? Maybe, maybe not, but in the case of Pete’s Dragon they definitely should.
With a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 88 percent, David Lowery’s wholesome fantasy adventure is the second top-rated of Disney’s never-ending live-action remakes behind only Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book, but that acclaim simply didn’t translate into a box office bonanza.
In fact, with a total haul of only $143 million from theaters, it would rank as the lowest-grossing blockbuster do-over since Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland first kicked the craze into high gear over a decade ago if it wasn’t for Mulan being awarded a very limited theatrical release that yielded a massive amount of money from Disney Plus Premier Access, but very little in ticket sales.
It released just four months after The Jungle Book and two months after Alice Through the Looking Glass, too, and with no less than 12 of the Mouse House’s big budget reimaginations having released in the seven years since, it’s easy to see why Pete’s Dragon – despite its status as one of the very best – ended up being largely forgotten.
That’s precisely what streaming is for, though, even if it’s ironic that it isn’t Disney Plus that’s given the movie a new lease of life. Per FlixPatrol, it’s back on a big way on iTunes, painting it as a runner-up yet again.