Disney’s Zootopia 2 fulfilled the early promise of preview results, opening on an estimated $156m in 4,000 locations over five days at the North SAmerican box office to score the second-highest three- and five-day Thanksgiving holiday debut ever.
Delivering $96.8m over three days to rank in the holiday pantheon behind only Moana 2, which earned $139.8m over three and $225.4m over five in 2024, the animated sequel directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard ensure Disney holds the top eight, and nine of the top 10 Thanksgiving opening weekends.
The weekend performance drove a session that saw Universal’s Wicked 2 bring in $68.2m over three days and $93m over five in its second weekend to reach an early $270.4m. There were solid bows too for awards contenders Hamnet through Focus Features and The Secret Agent via Neon.
Nowhere near 2024’s titanic Thanksgiving weekend that brought huge debuts from Moana 2 and Wicked, the weekend produced $186m and propelled the annual haul to $7.8bn for the year-to-date, which is tracking approximately 1.24% ahead of 2024 by the same stage.
Zootopia 2 played its part in a spectacular $556m global opening weekend that feature $272m from China. Screen will report international grosses on Monday.
The animation adventure was way ahead of the original’s $75.1m debut back in 2016 – including that film’s inflation-adjusted $102.3m. The ongoing adventures of rabbit cop Judy Hopps voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin and the fox Nick Wilde voiced by Jason Bateman also scored the third-highest North American opening in Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS) history behind Moana 2 and Frozen 2. The cast includes Ke Huy Quan.
In other all-time North American records for Zootopia 2 the film achieved: the second-highest Thanksgiving Day; second-highest Black Friday; second-highest Wednesday before Thanksgiving; and the second-highest preview gross for a WDAS sequel behind Moana 2.
A24’s fantasy romance Eternity starring Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner, Da’Vine Joy Randolph arrived in sixth place on $5.2m over five days on 1,348 screens.
Searchlight Pictures’ drama Rental Family from Hikari starring Brendan Fraser ranks seventh in its second session. The drama added $2.1m from 1,925 after a 37% drop that pushed the running total to $7.4m.
Hamnet is now in play and Chloe Zhao’s Oscar frontrunner that premiered in Telluride and picked up the talismanic Toronto People’s Choice audience award opened in 119 sites on $1.4m over five days and $880,000 over three. It expands next week and is expected to hold steady on excellent reviews and strong word of mouth. Jessie Buckley stars in the adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel as Agnes, who along with her husband William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) must deal with the death of their young son.
Neon opened The Secret Agent outside the top 10 on $46,209 over three days and $70,578 over five in two cinemas. Cannes best director winner Kleber Mendonca Filho’s Brazilian Oscar submission stars Cannes best actor winner Wagner Moura as an academic hounded by the authorities during the dictatorship years in the 1970s.
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