Frozen 2 is ready to dominate the weekend box office and it’s already claimed a November record for Thursday night previews for an animated film.
Frozen 2 grossed $8.5 million in Thursday night previews that began last night at 6:00 PM. It’s the best preview launch for an animated film in November and even holds its own with preview numbers from summer family releases such as Aladdin ($7 million), Finding Dory ($9 million ) and Toy Story 4 ($12 million). In terms of just pure November releases, the number is in the same ballpark as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ($8.75 million), Twilight‘s midnight shows of $7.5 million, and Thor: The Dark World‘s $7.1 million 10:00 PM shows. Frozen 2 also overtakes other Disney November releases such as Ralph Breaks the Internet ($3.8 million off 6:00 PM showtimes on its Tuesday during Thanksgiving week), Moana ($2.6 million Tuesday) and Coco ($2.3 million Tuesday).
I predicted an opening weekend of $125-130 million for the film and it looks like that could be a possibility based on the preview number. Fandango reports that Frozen 2 is their highest animated feature pre-seller in the online/digital ticket retailer’s history, besting Incredibles 2 and Toy Story.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood also kicked off in Thursday night previews with $900,000 off showtimes that started at 4:30 PM in 2,865 locations. That figure may seem a little on the soft side but this is a film that builds over time and the older demo the film is attracting isn’t of the rush and see it variety. The film, starring Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers, is likely to still see an impressive opening weekend.
21 Bridges wasn’t too far behind in Thursday previews, grossing $700,000 last night off 2,665 screens. The figure actually isn’t too far off from another adult male-skewing STX caper flick Den of Thieves, which did $950,000 in its Thursday preview ahead of its $15.2 million opening. T
