'Zootopia' melts 'Frozen' with a record-breaking debut weekend
Let it go, Frozen, let it goooooo -- Zootopia is Walt Disney Animation's king.
Disney's latest animated feature opened No. 1 this weekend with an estimated $73.7 million domestic box office take, even bigger than Princess Elsa and Frozen, which held the studio's previous three-day record with $67.4 million.
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Zootopia also raked in $31.8 million on Saturday, the largest single-day box office performance ever for Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Zootopia was a knockout among global audiences as well, and actually has been for some weeks. The movie's been out in parts of Europe -- Belgium, Spain, France and Italy -- since mid-February. It had close to $100 million in the bank before it even opened in America.
The U.S. release, along with openings in parts of Europe and Asia, helped propel Zootopia to a $137 million global weekend and a to-date box office of $232.5 million. It's set records as the biggest-ever opening for Disney Animation in multiple locations, including China, Germany, India and Russia.
(Frozen had something that Zootopia may not: Incredible legs. Frozen went on to make $1.27 billion worldwide, a number that suggests a spontaneous superfandom that gave it repeat viewings for its unforgettable songs and girl-power themes.)
High critical praise for Zootopia surely helped, though it seems the real secret to its success -- and really, Disney Animation's post-2010 resurgence -- is broad appeal. Pixar vets Edwin Catmull and John Lasseter are key here, signing off on some of the studio's most memorable work since the early '90s.
In the distant number two spot is London Has Fallen with an estimated $21.7 million.
In the distant No. 2 spot this weekend was London Has Fallen, sequel to Olympus Has Fallen, with an estimated $21.7 million. That's well below the $41 million opening weekend Olympus posted in 2013, one week before Easter.
London opened earlier in the season than its predecessor, likely due to looming competition from 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Divergent Series: Allegiant and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
The Gerard Butler-starring action-thriller angles for similar audiences, but "Fallen" as a series doesn't boast the same sort of geeky following. It's likely to be a slower burn at the box office.
The $98 million that Olympus grossed domestically isn't completely out of reach, though London is likely to end its run $30-40 million short of its predecessor.
Rounding out the top three is Deadpool, which finishes its first weekend since it opened out of the number one spot. Its estimated $16.4 million take is slightly more than half the $31 million it earned last weekend, but it boasts an impressive $311 million domestic total to date.
For those that love to track box office records, it seems very unlikely at this point that Deadpool will manage to unseat The Passion of the Christ as the top-earning R-rated movie ever made, at $370 million. It might not even unseat American Sniper, which sits at number two with $350 million.
That said, Deadpool will definitely go down as one of the big surprises of 2016 after its unreasonably huge $152 million opening weekend. It may also be one of the most influential movies of the year if it ends up spurring studios to better service what is clearly a large audience for adult-friendly superhero (or, as in this case, super-anti-hero) movies.
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Topics Film
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
