Icy grip on top spot
‘Frozen 2’ remains victorious, ‘Playmobil’ bombs
LOS ANGELES — “Frozen 2” dominated box office charts for the third weekend in a row as Disney’s animated sequel scored another $34.7 million in North America.
Those ticket sales, a 60% decline from its massive Thanksgiving haul, boost its domestic tally to $337 million.
“Frozen 2” earned $130 million in its inaugural outing and another $123 million the following weekend, cementing new high-water marks for Disney Animation.
It’s now the third movie this year behind Universal’s “Glass” and Disney’s “Avengers: Endgame” to win the box office for three consecutive weekends.
Overseas, “Frozen 2” continues to enchant moviegoers as the fantasy follow-up powers to the $1 billion mark at the global box office.
It brought in $90 million internationally this weekend, powering box office receipts to $920 million globally.
“Frozen 2” is expected to join the billion-dollar club soon and will be the sixth Disney film this year to hit that milestone. The only new film to movie theatre marquees this weekend was STX’s “Playmobil,” a cartoon based on the European children’s toys. Since “Frozen 2” is still enticing ticket buyers with young kids and the plastic toy company is relatively unknown compared to a brand like Lego (which Warner Bros. successfully mined into multiple feature films), “Playmobil” sputtered in spectacular fashion.
The animated adventure collected just $811,000 from 2,337 theatres in what is one of the worst nationwide opening weekends of all time.
Unless the movie resonates in a big way at the international box office — where it has generated $12.5 million to date — the $75 million film stands to be a major money loser for cofinanciers Wild Bunch, Pathe, Dimitri Rassam and the Parisbased On Animation. Lucky for STX, the company only paid to distribute the movie and doesn’t have a financial stake.
In a distant second place, Lionsgate and Rian Johnson’s whodunit “Knives Out” added another $14.5 million in its second weekend of release. The acclaimed murder mystery — starring Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans and Don Johnson — has pocked $63.5 million in North America and a strong $124 million globally to date. Holdovers rounded out box office charts. Disney-Fox’s “Ford v Ferrari” claimed third place, nabbing $6.58 million from 3,746 venues.
After a month in theatres, the racing drama with Christian Bale and Matt Damon amassed $91 million at the domestic box office. Universal’s “Queen and Slim” landed at No. 4, bringing in $6.53 million and lifting its North American revenues to $26.8 million.
In fifth place, Sony’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” earned $5.2 million in its third outing. The Mister Rogers film starring Tom Hanks has generated $43.1 million so far.