LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) – "Frozen 2" dominated box office charts for the third weekend in a row as Disney's animated sequel scored another US$34.7 million in North America.
Those ticket sales, a 60% decline from its massive Thanksgiving haul, boost its domestic tally to US$337 million.
"Frozen 2" earned US$130 million in its inaugural outing and another US$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 US$90 million internationally this weekend, powering box office receipts to US$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 theater 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 US$811,000 from 2,337 theaters 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 US$12.5 million to date – the US$75 million film stands to be a major money loser for co-financiers Wild Bunch, Pathe, Dimitri Rassam and the Paris-based 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 US$14.5 million in its second weekend of release. The acclaimed murder mystery – sRead More – Source
