Another record was broken this week, as Zootopia had the biggest opening weekend of any non-Pixar Disney cartoon ever at the North American box office.
The film — which imagines a world in which animals, rather than humans, grapple with identity politics — led the top ten with an estimated $73.7 million between Friday and Sunday, which is the second-best opening ever for an “original” animated film, behind Pixar’s Inside Out. The other animated films that had bigger openings were all sequels or, in the case of The Simpsons Movie, spun off from a popular TV show.
The previous best animated Disney opener was Frozen, which earned $67.4 million in its first weekend of wide release back in 2013. However, because that film went wide on a Wednesday, it actually earned $93.9 million by the end of its first Sunday.
Two other films had wide releases this week.
London Has Fallen opened to $21.7 million, which was better than the opening for last week’s Gerard Butler vehicle Gods of Egypt, but not as good as the openings for Olympus Has Fallen or its rival White House Down three years ago.
Meanwhile, Tina Fey’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot struggled to gross $7.6 million.
Despite the fact that three new films opened ahead of it, Risen — which earned $3.9 million this week — dropped only two spots, from fourth place last week to sixth place this week. Kung Fu Panda 3, which used to be ahead of Risen, had a steeper drop and fell to seventh place, no doubt due in part to competition from Zootopia.
Risen has now grossed $28.7 million altogether in North America, as well as another $374,378 overseas, for a combined worldwide gross of $29 million.
In other news, superhero comedy Deadpool earned another $16.4 million in North America in its fourth week, thereby raising its domestic total to $311.2 million.
The film still ranks third among R-rated movies in North America. It is ahead of where The Passion of the Christ (total domestic gross: $370.8 million) and American Sniper (total domestic gross: $350.1 million) were in their fourth weeks, but its fourth-week take was lower than theirs, so it might fall behind them in the weeks to come.
Deadpool has earned another $362.1 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $673.2 million. Overseas, among American R-rated films, it is behind only The Matrix Reloaded ($460.6 million), Fifty Shades of Grey ($404.8 million) and Troy ($364 million).1 Worldwide, it is second only to The Matrix Reloaded ($742.1 million).
Now for a little more data about Risen and where it sits relative to similar films:
Risen already had the fourth-best first weekend and the seventh-best second weekend of any “faith-based” film, and now it has the ninth-best third weekend:
- 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $32.1 million
- 2014 — Heaven Is for Real — $8.6 million
- 2015 — War Room — $7.8 million
- 2014 — God’s Not Dead — $7.8 million
- 2014 — Son of God — $5.5 million
- 2011 — Soul Surfer — $5.4 million
- 2006 — The Nativity Story — $4.7 million
- 2002 — Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie — $3.9 million
- 2016 — Risen — $3.9 million
- 2014 — When the Game Stands Tall — $3.4 million
Risen also currently ranks 11th within the genre in terms of total domestic gross…
- 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $370.8 million
- 2014 — Heaven Is for Real — $91.4 million
- 2015 — War Room — $67.8 million
- 2014 — God’s Not Dead — $60.8 million
- 2014 — Son of God — $59.7 million
- 2011 — Soul Surfer — $43.9 million
- 2006 — The Nativity Story — $37.6 million
- 2011 — Courageous — $34.5 million
- 2008 — Fireproof — $33.5 million
- 2014 — When the Game Stands Tall — $30.1 million
- 2016 — Risen — $28.7 million
- 2002 — Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie — $25.6 million
- 2015 — Woodlawn — $14.4 million
- 2014 — Left Behind — $14 million
- 2006 — One Night with the King — $13.4 million
…and it ranks 10th among Bible-themed films released in the past 40 years:
- 2004 — The Passion of the Christ — $370.8 million
- 1998 — The Prince of Egypt — $101.4 million
- 2014 — Noah — $101.2 million
- 2014 — Exodus: Gods and Kings — $65 million
- 2014 — Son of God — $59.7 million
- 2009 — Year One — $43.3 million
- 2006 — The Nativity Story — $37.6 million
- 1981 — History of the World, Part I — $31.7 million
- 2016 — Hail, Caesar! — $28.8 million
- 2016 — Risen — $28.7 million
- 2002 — Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie — $25.6 million
- 1979 — Monty Python’s Life of Brian — $20 million
- 1980 — Wholly Moses! — $14.2 million
- 2006 — One Night with the King — $13.4 million
- 1988 — The Last Temptation of Christ — $8.4 million
- 1985 — King David — $5.1 million
- 2003 — The Gospel of John — $4.1 million
Next week, we’ll get to add The Young Messiah to the mix.
March 7 update: The final numbers are in, and Zootopia earned $75.1 million over the weekend, which is more than what The Simpsons Movie opened to in 2007.
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1. Overseas, Deadpool is also behind foreign films that were rated R in the U.S. but never got beyond the arthouse circuit in North America, such as The Intouchables (a French film that earned $416.4 million overseas) and The Mermaid (a Chinese film that has earned over $500 million in China alone).
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