Refresh for latest…: Disney’s Frozen 2 is off to a hot start overseas with $18.6M from 26 markets at the international box office through Thursday. All debuts were No. 1, while Anna and Elsa now own the biggest animated opening day of all time in Korea ($4.2M) and several other hubs including Indonesia, Turkey, the Philippines, Malaysia and the UAE.
Along with Korea, key markets that have launched so far on the Jennifer Lee/Chris Buck-directed sequel are France and Germany. The first day in France set a new Disney Animation record with $2.6M, while Germany posted the 3rd highest animated opening day of all time at $1.9M. Both markets are currently at $3M.
Not included in the offshore total above is the China Friday which plowed in $11.4M. (with sneaks), repping the best Disney Animation/Pixar opening day ever. This portends a debut weekend in the $40M+ range, with a big bump expected on Saturday. The film currently has a 9.1 on Maoyan and a 7.5 on Douban (though the original logged a 9.5 on Maoyan and an 8.3 on Douban, its Middle Kingdom final in the younger days of the boom market was $48.2M in unadjusted dollars; this means Frozen 2 could ice the first film in its first frame).
Ahead of the weekend, conservative projections for the international opening were in the $120M-$140M range, though we were cautioned there was plenty of upward wiggle room. It certainly now looks like that will be the case. Still to open today are 10 further markets including such key plays as Japan, Mexico, the UK and Spain (as well as the aforementioned China).
In other milestones in early play, Frozen 2 has also posted the 2nd highest animated opening day of all time in Belgium and the 3rd highest animated opening day ever in the Netherlands, Singapore and Thailand.
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