‘Desire’ Rises to Disney Animation Star on Thanksgiving with $75M Global Opening; ‘Napoleon’ Earns $46M WW – Box Office Preview

Disney’s original animation is back this Thanksgiving with a photo of the princess To wish with as much as $45 million to $50 million more than 5 days after suffering a setback during last year’s holidays with Strange world what did you do US$18.8 million.

With strikes over and Thanksgiving week being prime time to go to the movies, with elementary and high schools discounted 47% / colleges discounted 18% today, rising to 100% each on Thursday and Friday, there is a lot of hope from Hollywood for a bumper box office. All Thanksgiving films from Wednesday through Sunday last year grossed $134 million. Remember that Black Friday is one of the richest days of the year in the national BO

The launch abroad for To wish it’s a staggered approach à la Disney/Pixar Elementary with just 43% of the foreign BO market operating this week, including the key markets of the UK, Spain, Mexico, China, as well as India, Benelux, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines. All in, US$25 million is expected from overseas, where Thanksgiving is not celebrated, with a $60 million global opening weekend and a rolling worldwide total through EOD Sunday $75 million.

The film, directed by Frozen franchise co-director Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, follows a young woman named Asha (voiced by West Side History Oscar winner Ariana DeBose) who wishes upon a star gets a more straightforward answer than she bargained for when a troubled star descends from the sky to join her. The film is inspired by Disney’s centennial and centers on the studio’s theme: wishes coming true. Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice wrote the songs with Disney orchestrator Dave Metzger writing the score.

Mexico will kick off on Thursday in a rare upset. And as France only goes next week, there is no offshore market opening on Wednesday. The United Kingdom, Spain and Hollywood’s least reliable market, China — the latter with a projected $5 million for the film’s offshore release — joined in on Friday. We wait for the top To wish The openers in this initial offshore slate are a mix of the UK, Mexico and China.

If all goes well, in 3 days, it could be the best Friday-Sunday domestic release for a post-pandemic original film, with $35 million after the Disney/Pixar film’s opening. Elementary for US$29.6 million. Currently pre-sales in the US/Canada for To wish are 60% ahead Elementary. To wish is booked in 3,700 theaters with U.S. premieres starting Tuesday at 3 p.m. Disney will have some PLF screens on To wish.

The competition here at the national BO is from last weekend Trolls Band Together ($30.6 million opening) from Universal/DreamWorks Animation, as well as Disney’s original animated musical film, Charmwhich faced Covid Thanksgiving 2021 with $40.5 million in 5 days and $27.2 million in 3 days.

Excluding China, new IP Elementary (which opened on holidays) debuted with $21.6 million in like-for-likes at current exchange rates. Similarly, Moana made $22.4 million and Charm $14 million in its comparable arcs.

Next weekend they add France and Germany, followed by Japan on December 15th, Italy on December 21st, Australia on December 26th and Korea and Brazil at the beginning of January.

Reviews for To wish sits at 52% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Coming second in domestic BO in 5 days is the second weekend of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Birds and Snakes with around US$30 million. The opening weekend fell short of $50 million opening projections of $44.6 million. The global debut was US$100.8 million. A $30M 5-day domestic cume is -33% off the Francise Lawrence-directed prequel’s opening weekend, which is close to the 2015 Thanksgiving stretch The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 did compared to opening weekend (-26% with $75.9M 5-day compared to $102.6M 3-day). The RT audience score is 91% for Songbirds and snakes versus the critic score of 63% new.

As we said on Friday, Ridley Scott’s Apple Studios production Napoleon via Sony is seeing a US$46 million global debut, broken, that is US$22 million 5 days domestic and US$24 million on another continent. Historical war photos proved to be money just before the pandemic began, ie 1917, and then, Oppenheimer. Ninety-six reviews for Joaquin Phoenix’s protagonist Napoleon stay at 68% fresh. The film is showing in theaters for 45 days. Napoleon It is Songbirds and snakes will share Imax.

Trolls Band Together are looking at a 5 day take of US$20 million. The film directed by Walt Dohrn received an A CinemaScore which was the same grade as the first Trolls in 2016.

Amazon/MGM Salt burn after an opening average of $46,000 and a three-day average of $322,000, it is expanding this week.