Mexico Is Going Loco For ‘Coco;’ Film Is On A Record-Breaking Pace

A positive sign for Disney-Pixar’s Coco: the film performed even better in its second weekend in Mexico than its first.

Coco grossed $10.4 million in weekend two, up 12% from its $9.3 million debut frame. After 10 days in theaters, the film has amassed a bulky $27.6M, more than any other animated film has ever earned in Mexico at the 10-day mark.

It’s still too early to tell if Coco, directed by Lee Unkrich and co-directed by Adrian Molina, could become the highest-grossing animated feature in Mexican history, but it’s certainly a possibility. Ironically, for Coco to achieve the record, it would have to dethrone another film directed by Unkrich: Toy Story 3, which earned $59.4M in 2010.

Coco’s only theatrical market right now is Mexico. The film opens in the United States and abroad on November 22.

The major success of an animation film in any country is always a great thing, and Coco could have an energizing effect on Mexico’s local animation industry.

Back in 2008, a similar situation happened in China. The global success of Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda became a rallying call for the Chinese animation industry, motivating Chinese producers to elevate their game and produce higher-quality content that better reflected their own culture. Ten years later, the Chinese animation industry is still in growth mode, continuing to develop and expand at frenetic pace.

While there were other factors beyond KFP that led to China’s animation boom, Mexico’s animation industry has been on a similar – if more modest – development track, and the country is poised to have an animation renaissance of its own. Coco will play a role in that, arriving at just the right moment in the country’s animation development, and the film will do a lot to inspire young Mexicans to join the animation industry.