Following its opening weekend record for a Disney Animated Feature film last weekend, Frozen II continued to absolutely dominate the box office, scoring the best weekend ever for the Thanksgiving holiday. The Numbers is reporting a three-day take of $85 million and a bounty of $123 million for the five-day weekend, eclipsing the records set by The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in 2013. Funnily enough, the original Frozen also opened on that weekend, and it still holds the title for best Thanksgiving opening to date.
As we reported last week, Frozen II earned an “A-” CinemaScore from audiences, and that’s one of the reasons we’re looking at such a strong hold here, as the power of word-of-mouth should never be underestimated. On social media, fans were talking about making return trips to the film, which also implies that repeat business is already quite good. Both of these factors were instrumental in helping the first Frozen make it to $400 million stateside, a number that Frozen II should easily be able to surpass before it’s done. So far, the Disney sequel has $287 million in the bank, which means that it’s eclipsed the total grosses of previous Disney Thanksgiving hits like Moana, Coco, Tangled and Ralph Breaks the Internet in a period of less than two weeks.
But the news doesn’t end there. Elsa and Anna are maintaining great business internationally as well, with a worldwide take of $738 million. Will Frozen II be able to top the first film’s $1.2 billion gross and become the new biggest animated movie of all time? That remains to be seen, but competition is on the horizon in the form of the upcoming Jumanji (December 13th) and Star Wars (December 20th) sequels. Next weekend, however, should prove to be another easy victory, as the only newcomer is the long-troubled PLaymobil: The Movie.
Final figures are due tomorrow.