• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

Dialing in perfect theatrical holiday season sentiment, Walt Disney’s “Zootopia 2” blasted to a record-setting $156 million domestic opening to total $556.4 million globally over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to Comscore.

“Zootopia” posted the strongest result ever for an animated film and the fourth-highest ever for any Hollywood-produced movie.

This version of “Zootopia” doubled the amount for the original in 2016 ($75.1 million). That movie went on to be another billion-dollar global take for Disney -- at $1.03 billion. 

Not to be outdone, the second week of another big musical fantasy-holiday hit, Universal’s “Wicked: For Good,” took in another $62.8 million domestically -- now at $270.4 million after nearly two weeks and $393.3 million globally. 

Disney spent a modest $17.6 million on national TV advertising for the film -- coming from 5,790 airings resulting in 4.12 billion impressions, according to EDO Ad EnGage estimates.

NFL programming was a major program airing these spots, as well as Disney Channel programs "Big City Greens," "Bluey" and "Kiff."

National TV advertising spend for theatrical movies is down slightly -- 4% season-to-date to $818.9 million. Airings are up 14% to 206,710, with impressions adding 11% to 115.1 billion, according to estimates from EDO Ad EnGage.

In good early holiday news, domestic (U.S./Canada) theatrical box-office revenue is slightly up -- 1.2% to $7.57 billion versus 2024 year-to-date (November 30). But results are still down 7.1% from 2023 ($8.2 billion).