Disney has continued to break records at the box office this year — and is on the verge of setting a new one.
The studio has already garnered more than $8 billion at the global box office since January, breaking the record for the highest-grossing year for a studio ever, which it set in 2016.
Not to mention it already has the most billion-dollar movies in a single year with five. And “Frozen II” looks to be its sixth.
“I think a lot of kids are realizing how much nostalgia they have for ‘Frozen,’” said Erik Davis, managing editor at Fandango. “It’s the first film for that generation that they can be nostalgic for.”
The hotly anticipated sequel to the 2013 blockbuster “Frozen” arrives in theaters Friday and is expected to haul in as much as, if not more than, the original before the end of its run.
“Frozen” was a breakout hit for Disney Animation, garnering more than $400 million at the domestic box office.
The film, which introduced fans to characters such as Olaf the snowman, Princess Anna and Queen Elsa, went on to earn more than $1.2 billion worldwide at the box office and win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature film in 2014.
With the success of other sequels such as “Finding Dory,” which garnered about $1.03 billion at the box office in 2016, it’s no surprise Disney was keen to bring the cast of “Frozen” back to the big screen.
“Frozen II” picks up not long after the end of “Frozen,” with Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven leaving Arendelle to travel to an ancient forest in a far-off enchanted land. Their quest is to find the origin of Elsa’s frosty powers and save their kingdom.
Current estimates for the film’s opening weekend range from $120 million to $140 million.
“A $100 million three-day weekend is a foregone conclusion,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
Still, there is some speculation that “Frozen II” could earn even more during its opening, especially as advance ticket sales for the film continue to spike.
On Atom Tickets, “Frozen II” has sold more tickets than “Toy Story 4″ and “Incredibles 2” combined during the same time period and outpaced the volume for live-action Disney remakes including “The Lion King” and “Aladdin.”
“Disney now holds the record for top three animated movie pre-sales on Atom, for ‘Frozen II,’ ‘Toy Story 4,’ and ‘Incredibles 2,’” Matthew Bakal, co-founder and chairman of Atom Tickets, said in a statement to CNBC.
On Fandango, the film is outpacing “The Lion King” and beating all other animated movies at this time in the cycle, Davis said.
If sales and consumer interest remain high, “Frozen II” could dethrone “Incredibles 2″ and become the top animated movie opening in North America of all time. But, it will need to earn more than $182.6 million in its first three days in theaters.
(Excerpt) Read more @ CNBC