In perhaps the least surprising piece of news this month, Disney’s hotly-anticipated sequel Frozen 2 has enjoyed a magical opening at the box office, with the follow-up to the 2013 smash hit setting a new record for an animated movie with $350.2 million worldwide.
Domestically, Frozen 2 earned $127 million from its three-day opening (the third biggest for an animated film after Incredibles 2 ($182.7 million) and Finding Dory ($135.1 million), and pulled in an additional $223.3 million from 37 international markets, opening in first place in each.
“We are definitely thrilled,” said Disney’s President of Theatrical Distribution Cathleen Taff. “It’s not easy to follow up the original Frozen. We are cautiously optimistic the film will continue to have legs. With the strong social scores and the holidays coming up, I think we’re going to have a good run.”
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The original Frozen pulled in $1.276 billion back in 2013, making it the highest-grossing animated movie of all time if you discount this year’s The Lion King (which Disney does). It remained to be seen if Frozen 2 can match that figure, but it looks all but certain that the sequel will become Disney’s sixth release to pass the $1 billion mark this year (and with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker likely to make it seven next month).
Frozen 2 sees Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad and Jonathan Groff returning to voice the characters of Anna, Elsa, Olaf and Kristoff alongside Frozen newcomers Evan Rachel Wood and Sterling K. Brown.
