‘Zootopia’ Three-Peats In U.S., Becomes China’s Highest-Grossing Animation Ever
This was the weekend that Paramount was supposed to have unveiled the French feature The Little Prince. However, they abandoned the film’s U.S. release, and the big story instead is that Disney’s Zootopia managed to stay atop the American box office for a third straight weekend, becoming the first animated feature to three-peat in the U.S. since The Lego Movie in 2014.
In its third weekend, Zootopia experienced another phenomenal hold, dropping a slim 25.9% for an estimated $38 million weekend. Its total gross is $201.8m. The furry stars also stayed atop the international box office, nabbing $64.8m, lifting the global total to $591.7m.
Its top foreign country is China ($173.4m), where the film has surpassed Kung Fu Panda 3 and Monkey King: Hero Is Back to become the highest-grossing animated feature ever released in that country.
Here are the worldwide grosses for some of Disney’s other recent features, to give a sense of how well the film is performing:
Frozen (2013) — $1.27 billion
Big Hero 6 (2014) — $657.8 million
Tangled (2010) — $591.8 million
Zootopia(2016) — $591.7 million
Wreck-It Ralph (2012) — $471.2 million
Bolt (2008) — $310 million
The Princess and the Frog (2009) — $267 million
Kung Fu Panda 3′s U.S. run is coming to a close in the U.S. — the film grossed $985,000 in 15th place — but the DreamWorks Animation film continues to expand internationally. It was the fourth-highest grossing film last weekend, claiming $32.8m worldwide. With a global gross currently at $395.4 million, KFP3 will face an uphill climb to reach the original’s $631.7m or the sequel’s $665.7m total.
Meanwhile, Paramount expanded its stop motion release, Anomalisa, into 573 theaters. This was a significant expansion, considering that Anomalisa hadn’t played more than 170 screens on any given weekend since its debut last December, but the film’s box office performed more like an art house release than an animated feature, picking up a modest $740,000 from its weekend showings. Anomalisa has banked $3.4m to date in the U.S.
