‘Frozen 2’ Stays Hot at Box Office, Crossing $160 Million in North America
By Dave McNary
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Disney’s “Frozen 2” is dominating North American moviegoing, topping $160 million in its first five days.
The animated adventure, which launched with a $130.3 million opening weekend, took in $12 million on Monday and an estimated $21 million on Tuesday. “” could add as much as $100 million to $120 million during the five-day Thanksgiving holiday period. It’s a new record for a Tuesday in November, easily topping the previous best of $16 million by “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.”
Lionsgate’s mystery comedy “Knives Out” is showing respectable results from preview showings with $1.7 million on Tuesday night in addition to $2 million from early screenings last weekend. “” opens in 3,391 sites Wednesday amid strong reviews with a stellar 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film, directed by Rian Johnson, centers on a family gathering that devolves when the patriarch (Christopher Plummer) dies after his 85th birthday party, leaving everyone a suspect. The cast includes Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis and Toni Collette. “Knives Out” is produced by MRC and T-Street.
Universal is opening another counter programmer on Wednesday with “ Queen & Slim ,” starring Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith. It’s expected to earn $10 million from 1,500 theaters over the extended holiday. Melina Matsoukas, the filmmaker behind Beyonce’s “Formation” music video, directed the film, while Lena Waithe wrote the script. It has an 87% Rotten Tomatoes score.
“Frozen 2″ is providing a much-needed jolt to the moviegoing business, which is down by 7% from the same point in 2018, according to Comscore. That gap may widen over the weekend since the 2018 Thanksgiving period set a record with $315.5 million over the five days as the box office was led by “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” “Creed II” and “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.”
“Frozen 2” comes six years after the original “Frozen,” which was a smash hit as the highest-grossing animated movie ever, raking in $400 million in North America and $1.28 billion worldwide in 2013. “Frozen 2” sees the return of the popular characters Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel); her sister, Anna (Kristen Bell); Kristoff (Jonathan Groff); and Olaf (Josh Gad) as they venture beyond the kingdom of Arendelle to find out why Elsa was born with magical powers.
“ Knives Out ” is expected to finish second with $20 million to $25 million during the five days while “” should come in at about $10 million. Sony’s second weekend of “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and Disney-Fox’s third frame of “Ford v Ferrari” will also be contending for third place. “Ford v Ferrari” has topped $60 million in its first dozen days.
