'Frozen' Nearly Topples 'Catching Fire' on Box Office

Movie

Both 'Frozen' and 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' break records as the biggest Thanksgiving wide release opening ever and the highest five-day holiday weekend grosses respectively.

December 2, 2013

AceShowbiz -

"Frozen (2013)" and "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" were favorites among moviegoers to watch over Thanksgiving weekend in North America. The Disney animated film opens to an estimated $66.7 million in its debut weekend, while Lionsgate's sequel to Jennifer Lawrence-starring "The Hunger Games" adds around $74.5 million in its second weekend.

Though falling short of taking over the first spot from "Catching Fire", "Frozen" is still a record breaker. The kiddie-friendly film voiced by Kristen Bell and Broadway star Idina Menzel scores the biggest opening ever for a Thanksgiving movie, surpassing the $57.5M mark posted by "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in 2001.

Aside from staying strong atop domestic box office, "Catching Fire" also leaves its mark as the highest domestic box office grosses for five-day holiday weekend. It rakes in $110.2M from Wednesday to Sunday for a domestic total of $296.5M, while "Frozen" has collected $93M since its November 27 release. Both top Disney's previous five-day champ, "Toy Story 2", which earned $80.1M in 1999.

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Additionally, "Catching Fire" posts the fourth best second weekend in history after "The Avengers" ($103.1 million), "Avatar" ($75.6 million), and "The Dark Knight" ($75.2 million). Internationally, the $130M-budgeted sequel adds another $92.5 million for a foreign total of $276.5 million and an impressive worldwide haul of $573 million.

"Thor: The Dark World" gives up the second spot to occupy the third place with approximately $11.1M. "The Best Man Holiday" moves one spot to the fourth position with an estimated $8.4M, and "Homefront" rounds up the top 5 with $6.9M debut. A couple steps lowers, "Black Nativity" starts at No. 8 with approximately $3.8M. Meanwhile, Spike Lee's "Oldboy" arrives at No. 17 with around $850k.