Preview:
- ‘Zootopia 2’ was a hit at the Thanksgiving holiday box office.
- The Disney animated sequel earned $156 million across five days.
- ‘Wicked: For Good’ had a solid second weekend.
Disney has long staked out the five-day Thanksgiving holiday period as prime box office real estate, priming one of its animated movies for release as families are looking for something to watch as part of their celebrations.
And in the case of ‘Zootopia 2,’ the strategy has worked, with the sequel to the 2016 original enjoying a successful first fun, ending up with $156 million for the extended weekend period ($96.8 million from Friday to Sunday).
ySgIjSYPTLnkhYIvB5lCe4That puts it just behind last year’s ‘Moana 2’ (which is still the top Thanksgiving grosser) and ahead of other Disney stablemates such as ‘Frozen II.’
Related Article: Movie Review: ‘Zootopia 2’
How did ‘Zootopia 2’ do elsewhere?
In addition to its domestic haul, the new movie earned good reviews and broke some records overseas.
It scored the top opening day of the year to date for an animated title in key markets, including in France, Germany and Italy, an even more impressive feat considering it isn’t a holiday elsewhere, not to to mention a record-setting $272 million in China at a time when Hollywood is worried about the future of the Chinese market.
The movie ended up with a massive $556 million globally to stand as the fourth-biggest opening weekend in history.
What else happened at the box office this weekend?
‘Wicked: For Good,’ the second part of Jon M. Chu’s ambitious adaptation of the stage musical and Gregory Maguire book that present an alternate look at the storyline from ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ fell 62.2% from its opening weekend, but still put up some impressive numbers.
It crossed the $200 million mark at the domestic box office on Thanksgiving day itself and ended up with a $93 million total at the end of the five-day period, for a $270.4 million total in the States and $393.3 million globally after 10 days on release.
While its reviews and earning power might not have been as rapturous as last year’s first ‘Wicked,’ it’s clearly still enchanting audiences.
Third place went to ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,’ with the latest entry in the magician heist franchise taking $10.1 million across the five days.
In fourth, we find ‘Predator: Badlands’ with $85 million so far domestically since release, ahead of fifth-placed entry ‘The Running Man,’ which truly seems to have run out of steam, ending up with $34 million total in the US so far.
There were few new entries looking to challenge Disney’s dominance of the holiday, but A24 did open whimsical afterlife comedy drama ‘Eternity’ in more than 1,400 theaters, where it took in $5.2 million.
List of Jared Bush Films:
- Zootopia (2016)
- Moana (2016)
- Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
- Encanto (2021)
- Moana 2 (2024)
