‘Frozen 2’: Did the Disney Sequel Outdo the Original Movie at the Box Office?
Frozen 2, one of Disney’s most highly anticipated sequels of 2019, came out in theaters on Nov. 22, 2019. The Scandinavia-set, reindeer-filled movie already has smashed box-office records for animated films. But are ticket sales living up to the original?
‘Frozen 2’ broke animated movie box office records
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Frozen 2 has enjoyed a solid follow-up at the box office so far. On opening weekend, the sequel made $130 million in the U.S. and $228.2 million overseas. This makes the film the highest-earning global debut for an animated movie.
Frozen 2 dominated the Thanksgiving weekend box office; it’s estimated the sequel will make $128 million over the course of the five-day weekend.
If current ticket sales estimates hold true, Frozen 2 will beat out the previous Thanksgiving weekend record set by Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The Jennifer Lawrence-led film holds the current record of $110 million.
Entertainment Weekly reported that Frozen 2 was “the best November opening of all time,” and in fourth place for animated movies. The children’s movie also provided North American box offices their highest-ever-grossing Monday and Tuesday in the month of November. The movie collected $12.8 million and $20.8 million on its first Monday and Tuesday, respectively. Then the film made another $23.8 million the next day.
Frozen 2 has now raked in $187.6 million domestically and $228.2 million globally. After only days out in theaters, it hasn’t yet beaten out the original but is on track to do so. Frozen, released on the same date in November 2013, grossed $1.3 billion total at the box office.
Reviews are in for the new Disney movie
The film enjoys a solid 76% on the movie-review site Rotten Tomatoes. Critiques are mixed, but overall positive.
Angie Han at Mashable wrote that while the Frozen 2 seemed to exist for its box office potential, it had “eye-popping fantasy sequences” and “nice moments” for all of the characters.
The DisInsider‘s critic argued that Frozen 2 was the better movie–a “darker” and “more mature” follow-up to the original.
Most film reviewers agreed that the darker elements made the story more powerful.
‘Frozen 2’ offers new characters, new songs for the soundtrack
The Disney sequel offers a new storyline, new songs, and new characters. Evan Rachel Wood voiced the character of Iduna, Princess Elsa and Princess Anna’s mother. Movie-goers get to see flashbacks to the queen with her daughters when they were young. Sterling K. Brown also plays a new character named Lieutenant Matthias.
But the soundtrack is apparently one of the best features Frozen 2 has to offer.
The New York Times’ Kyle Buchanan even claimed one of the new songs was strong enough to validate the movie’s existence.
“FROZEN II radiates such strong ‘does not need to exist’ vibes up until they give Jonathan Groff the best song,” Buchanan wrote.
Jason Guerrasio of Business Insider also predicted which song from Frozen 2 will haunt the nightmares of parents everywhere (like “Let It Go” did from the original’s soundtrack).
“The song ‘Into the Unknown’ is primed to be ‘Let It Go’-like addictive (sorry parents),” Guerrasio tweeted. “And there’s even an ‘80s ballad… sung [by] Weezer in the end credits! Get ready!!!”
