Disney film topped previous record-holder ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’
Disney’s ‘Frozen 2’ dominated the US box office once again in its second weekend, adding $123.7 million (Dh454.26 million) through the five-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend, including $85.3 million Friday through Sunday (a small 35% drop), for a cumulative total of $287.6 million, according to estimates from measurement firm Comscore.
“This was the Thanksgiving box office bounty the industry was hoping for, and while not a record-breaker (overall), the holiday frame was strong enough to knock the YTD deficit down by 1.3% and get the momentum rolling,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore.
‘Frozen 2’ topped previous Thanksgiving weekend record-holder ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’, which earned about $110 million in 2013. ‘Frozen 2’ crossed the domestic $200 million mark in near-record time and currently stands at $738.6 million in global ticket sales.
In second place, Lionsgate and MRC’s ‘Knives Out’ opened Wednesday well ahead of expectations with a five-day debut of $41.7 million, including $27 million Friday through Sunday. It earned $28.3 million internationally for a global cumulative total of $70 million.
“Murder mysteries have always been enormously popular, but cinematically they had become fairly predictable and a little less interesting,” said Joe Drake, chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. Director Rian Johnson “and our producing partners at MRC and T-Street did an extraordinary job of rekindling the genre and exciting moviegoers into action with an exceptionally entertaining film that delivered … fresh characters and a plot that has unpredictable twists and turns. We are off to a fantastic start and expect a very strong holiday multiple given the word of mouth on the movie.”
Written and directed by Johnson (‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’), the film is a comedic take on the murder mystery genre starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Katherine Langford, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Jaeden Martell and Don Johnson as members of a wealthy family whose patriarch (played by Christopher Plummer) dies unexpectedly. Lakeith Stanfield, Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas also star.
It was well-received with an A-minus CinemaScore and a 96 per cent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
At No. 3, Fox’s ‘Ford v Ferrari’ added a five-day haul of $19 million, with $13.2 million in its third weekend for a cumulative total of $81 million. Globally, the film has earned $143.3 million.
