'Frozen 2' Makes Box Office History In Thanksgiving Weekend
The long-awaited animated movie of the year scored another record-breaking success and turned into a complete reflection of its predecessor's triumph in 2013.
Before its release, Fandango's Managing Editor Erik Davis already predicted that "Frozen 2" would do well ahead of Thanksgiving Holiday.
"I think it will do well opening up ahead of a holiday week. A lot of kids are actually off all of next week. It gives ['Frozen 2'] a chance to have legs and open up in a really big way," Davis said.
As foretold, moviegoers lined up to theaters from Wednesday to Sunday during the holiday weekend, contributing to a $124 million box office record. It surpassed the $110 million sales of the"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" in 2013, making it now the highest-grossing film in Thanksgiving weekend.
The movie went beyond their expectations and successfully caused long traffics in the first two weeks. People's tradition to watch a Disney movie every holiday and the impression left by the first "Frozen" movie helped the second installment to earn more.
Compared to the first film's five-day start of $93.7 million in 2013, "Frozen 2" skyrocketed by 32 percent. The film is expected to reach its $1 billion mark -- to think that it already raked $451 million internationally in just two weeks.
Moreover, its three-day weekend record exceeded "Incredibles 2" ($80 million) and 2019's "The Lion King" ($77 million) for the biggest non-opening weekend for an animated film.
Per the data released by Atom Tickets, one of the popular companies that sell movie tickets, they have sold more "Frozen 2" tickets than "Toy Story 4″ and "Incredibles 2" combined during the same period. It also beat the sales of Disney live-action remakes including "Aladdin" and "The Lion King."
In the second place, "Knives Out" raked $27 million. While Christian Bale and Matt Damon-starring biopic "Ford v Ferrari" ($13 million), "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" ($11.8 million), and "Queen & Slim" ($11.7 million) completed the top five of the best movies during Thanksgiving Weekend.
What The Experts Say About "Frozen 2"?
According to Comscore's senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, since Disney released the movie before the Thanksgiving day, it could gain "a ton of momentum" and play well.
"I think it's a smart strategy. It has time to build word of mouth and get that holiday boost in the second week," Boxoffice.com's chief analyst Shawn Robbins added before the release date.
However, despite the positive things they saw, experts also warned the moviegoers' parents as "Frozen 2" has more tension compared to the first one.
Psychologist Laura Saunders said that the parents should encourage their children to "open up" if they see something confusing in the movie since the main character deals with complex emotions.
Despite this warning, Saunders still stated that there is something all moviegoers can learn after watching the movie
"It is okay to learn how to learn about these in a fantasy form like a movie before you experience them in real life. It gives you practice in how to process," Saunders said.
