USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Frozen 2’ ices newcomers at the box office
LOS ANGELES – “Frozen 2” kept a wintry wind at its back in its second week, setting a Thanksgiving record with a whopping box office bounty, while newcomer “Knives Out” found its own broad audience.
Disney’s new set of adventures for Anna, Elsa and Olaf brought in $ 85.3 million in the U. S. and Canada over the weekend and earned an unprecedented $ 132.7 million for Wednesday through Sunday, according to studio estimates.
The first “Frozen” opened on Thanksgiving in 2013, but the sequel opened a week before the holiday, making it poised for a huge second week.
“Having the opening weekend falling a few days ahead of Thanksgiving really set it up perfectly,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore.
That came on top of a record- burying opening weekend of $ 127 million domestically and $ 350.2 million worldwide that made it the highest- grossing global debut for any animated film globally, and the largest opening for any Walt Disney Animation Studios release.
The original film became a pop- culture phenomenon, earning $ 1.27 billion worldwide.
“Knives Out,” an innovative whodunit, rode strong reviews and word of mouth to a $ 27 million weekend and a five- day total of $ 41.7 million.
The weekend’s other newcomer, “Queen & Slim,” finished fifth with $ 11.7 million, but on limited screens and a budget of about $ 20 million.
Matt Damon and Christian Bale’s “Ford v Ferrari” rolled along in its third weekend of release, finishing in third place with $ 13.2 million.
Tom Hanks’ Mister Rogers story “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” also hummed along, earning $ 11.8 million to put it fourth at the domestic box office.