Box Office Update: Frozen 2 Surpasses $450 Million While Star Wars to Face Little Competition

Whenever a sequel comes out after a popular film, there’s always one big question on the lips of experts; ‘how will it compete with the original?’. The answer for Frozen 2? Very well.

Released just before the Thanksgiving holiday period, early estimates on Wednesday suggest that Frozen 2 will become the most successful Thanksgiving movie of all-time. Back in 2013, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire took just under $110 million, and Frozen 2 is expected to surpass this quite easily.

From the first five days of release alone, the Disney movie took nearly $165 million domestically. Compared to the first five days of Frozen, and adjusted for inflation, this is an increase of 56%. Of course, it’s important to remember that the original required some warming up (excuse the pun!). Over time, the first instalment continually grew in popularity as the weeks went on. This time, the franchise already had a huge fan base ready and waiting to see the movie.

While the debate as to whether Frozen 2 will reach the first movie’s $400 million domestic revenue rolls on, there’s no denying the success of the movie elsewhere. At the moment, the split is at around 63/37 to the international market. If revenues continue at a similar pace, experts believe it could have a total of $450 million by the end of the week.

Takeaways from a Successful Opening

With this in mind, there are some key points to make regarding the long-awaited Frozen 2;

• Disney has shown that waiting five years isn’t always a bad thing before releasing a sequel to a huge movie.

• This might just be the biggest ever sequel for Walt Disney Animation (previous failed projects include The Jungle Book 2 and Peter Pan 2).

• Frozen 2 has definitely saved what would have been a poor November (though we also need to consider the delays to James Bond 25 and Wonder Woman 2).

Even after this, Frozen 2 is the first sequel in a while that has added, rather than taken away, from a franchise. In recent times, many franchises have been harmed by poorly performing movies. This includes; Godzilla, Terminator, Men in Black, X-Men, and The Secret Life of Pets. All in all, it has performed brilliantly for the good of the company as well as the industry in general – did we really expect anything less?

Little Competition for Star Wars

Elsewhere, all the talk about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is nearly at an end since we’re just a few weeks from release. Will it dominate the box office? Yes, in all likelihood, since there will be a lack of competition. It seems that only Little Women from Sony and Spies in Disguise from Fox will compete over Christmas and New Year. With Sonic the Hedgehog also being delayed from the end of 2019, it might just be the leggiest Star Wars for some time (since The Phantom Menace).