Key Takeaways
Total 3-Day Weekend Gross:
$75,121,421 | -51.2% Last Week / -20.3% Weekend 50, 2024
Theaters endured a slow pre-holiday frame that lagged behind both last week and year-over-year when Moana 2 held a similar sway to Zootopia 2, the latter of which has now climbed back to the #1 spot and over $1B globally. While 2024’s Frame 50 had weak newcomers in Kraven the Hunter ($11M) and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim ($4.55M), this year’s Ella McCay ($2.1M) and Cineverse’s Silent Night, Deadly Night remake ($1.1M) are a far sight worse. Right now everyone is holding steady until the big bonanza next frame, which is certain to overtake the same overall from Frame 51 last year ($142.28M)… perhaps with Avatar alone.
- Top Title: Zootopia 2 (Disney) | $26.3M / 3,835 Screens / $6,858 PSA | Week 3
- Top Opener: Ella McCay (20th Century) | $2.1M / 2500 Screens / $840 PSA | Week 1
- Best PSA: Rosemead (Vertical) | $29.1K / 1 Screen / $29,118 PSA | Week 2
1. Zootopia 2
Walt Disney Pictures | Week 3
$26.3M 3-Day Weekend | $258.97M Domestic Total
$1.13B Global Total
Walt Disney Pictures’ Zootopia 2 shot back up to #1 with $26.3M from 3,835 screens for a $6,858 PSA, falling only -39% in its third frame (vs -48% for Moana 2’s third weekend). This brings the domestic total to $258.97M, compared to $209.3M for the 2016 original 19-days in, maintaining the #9 spot in Top 10 for the year behind/soon-to-overtake How to Train Your Dragon ($262.95M). The weekend gross is just a hair shy of our prediction panel’s low-end estimate ($27M), although we accurately predicted the film’s win over last week’s champ Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.
Here’s how the 3-Day looked…
- Friday – $6.2M
- Saturday – $11.7M
- Sunday – $8.4M
While the picture continues to do well in North America, the overseas tally is in a whole other realm of success with $877.7M earned so far in 52 material territories ($131.1M this frame alone). An estimated $5.2M of that came from global IMAX screens, bringing the movie’s total in the format to $56.6M.
Much of this foreign money is thanks to the China take of $502.4M, which may eventually surpass Avengers: Endgame ($557.69M) as the #1 MPA title in that territory. The performance also bodes well for the studio’s third Avatar movie in the Middle Kingdom next week. Overall, Zootopia 2 has now crossed the billion landmark with $1.136B, also surpassing the original’s $1B lifetime total.
Other Notable Performances
Universal and Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 dropped -70% to #2 in its second frame for a $19.5M take, bringing the domestic total to $95.48M. This is on par with the first movie’s $19M Frame 2 (-76%), although it had made $113.2M by that point. As we explained on Wednesday, this movie showed all signs of being front-loaded, which it was, having a predominantly younger audience that showed up in droves for Week 1, then moved on. Overseas Freddy’s 2 made $19.1M from 78 territories, on pace with domestic, bringing the international total to $78.3M for an overall $173.79M global haul, more than halfway towards the first movie’s nearly $300M WW bank.
Disney’s 20th Century Studios wide released the political family dramedy Ella McCay into 2,500 locations where it pulled in only $2.1M ($840 PSA), opening, as predicted, outside the Top 5 at #6. Ticket buyers were largely Caucasian (68%), female (58%), and older (34% in the 55+ age bracket, 21% in the 45-54 age bracket). Hailing from Oscar-winner James L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, As Good as it Gets), his new film needed excellent word-of-mouth to break through to an audience accustomed to getting pictures of this ilk through streamers. It failed hard on that front, with 22% critical and 55% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a “B-” CinemaScore, and 2 stars via PostTrak. This is worse than his last picture, 2010’s How Do You Know?, which debuted to $7.48M in the same December slot on the same number of screens, although that had the benefit of an all-star cast including Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, and Jack Nicholson. Overseas was humdrum, with $0.3M from 5 material territories for a $2.4M global total. Although he has remained active as a writer/producer, Brooks had not directed a film in the 15 years since his disastrous How Do You Know? ($30.2M domestic/$120M budget). The fact that Disney put big resources behind a not-at-all-sure-bet, in a marketplace that has been unkind to the dramedies that are Brooks’ bread and butter, makes one wonder if it played a part in getting the go-ahead for the next Simpsons movie, which Brooks’ Gracie Films is producing for summer 2027.
Next Weekend
The following frame will be the big blowout weekend theaters have been waiting for. 20th Century/Disney are delivering their likely next billion dollar tentpole with James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire & Ash, the third film in the vaunted franchise which has delivered $2B+ blockbusters two-times-over. Also on tap for counter-programming is Paramount’s The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, another colorfully fun splash of wackiness in a TV-to-film franchise that has brought in nearly half-a-billion over three movies. Also competing for the family dollar is Angel Studios’ Old Testament musical David, riding the coattails of the studios’ previous animated hit The King of Kings ($79.2M WW) this past Easter. For more dramatic titles, Lionsgate is giving us the battle of the blondes (Sidney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried) in Paul Feig’s thriller The Housemaid, while Searchlight launches the limited release of director Bradley Cooper’s well-reviewed comedy-drama Is This Thing On? starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern.
Sunday Studio Estimates | Weekend 50 – 2025
Total 3-Day Domestic Gross: $75,121,421 | (-20.3% vs 2024)
| Title | Weekend Estimate | % Change | Locations | Location Change | PSA | Domestic Total | Week | Distributor |
| Zootopia 2 | $26,300,000 | -39% | 3,835 | -165 | $6,858 | 258,970,004 | 3 | Walt Disney |
| Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 | $19,500,000 | -70% | 3,579 | 167 | $5,448 | 95,481,000 | 2 | Universal |
| Wicked: For Good | $8,550,000 | -51% | 3,480 | -505 | $2,457 | 312,145,000 | 4 | Universal |
| Dhurandhar | $3,500,000 | 65% | 377 | -13 | $9,284 | 7,819,000 | 2 | Yash Raj Films |
| Now You See Me: Now You Don’t | $2,380,000 | -32% | 2,411 | -218 | $987 | 59,340,400 | 5 | Lionsgate |
| Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution | $2,102,000 | -79% | 1,900 | 67 | $1,106 | 14,513,720 | 2 | GKIDS |
| Ella McCay | $2,100,000 | 2,500 | $840 | 2,100,000 | 1 | 20th Century… | ||
| How the Grinch Stole Christmas | $1,850,000 | 2,250 | $822 | 264,276,000 | 1,309 | Universal | ||
| Eternity | $1,774,328 | -35% | 2,067 | -319 | $858 | 12,998,616 | 3 | A24 |
| Hamnet | $1,490,000 | -36% | 749 | 5 | $1,989 | 7,004,510 | 3 | Focus Features |
| Silent Night, Deadly Night | $1,120,000 | 1,640 | $683 | 1,120,000 | 1 | Iconic Relea… | ||
| Predator: Badlands | $1,000,000 | -46% | 1,265 | -815 | $791 | 90,023,799 | 6 | 20th Century… |
| Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair | $810,000 | -76% | 1,204 | 6 | $673 | 5,469,207 | 2 | Lionsgate |
| One Battle After Another | $450,000 | #ERROR! | 572 | 541 | $787 | 71,162,000 | 12 | Warner Bros. |
| The Running Man | $430,000 | -64% | 893 | -656 | $482 | 37,606,000 | 5 | Paramount Pi… |
| Nuremberg | $335,000 | -3% | 588 | 247 | $570 | 13,753,000 | 6 | Sony Picture… |
| Sentimental Value | $240,100 | -20% | 241 | -93 | $996 | 3,365,957 | 6 | Neon |
| The Secret Agent | $234,048 | 117% | 43 | 35 | $5,443 | 487,880 | 3 | Neon |
| Rental Family | $213,000 | -65% | 315 | -690 | $676 | 9,610,290 | 4 | Searchlight … |
| Merrily We Roll Along | $190,000 | -85% | 330 | -754 | $576 | 2,180,000 | 2 | Sony Picture… |
| Fackham Hall | $92,340 | -85% | 335 | -777 | $276 | 987,966 | 2 | Bleecker Street |
| Resurrection | $64,200 | 3 | $21,400 | 64,200 | 1 | Janus Films | ||
| Bugonia | $45,000 | -47% | 46 | -24 | $978 | 17,663,000 | 8 | Focus Features |
| It Was Just an Accident | $33,400 | -5% | 38 | n/c | $879 | 1,523,354 | 9 | Neon |
| Rosemead | $29,118 | -42% | 1 | n/c | $29,118 | 88,240 | 2 | Vertical Ent… |
| Rebuilding | $28,193 | 262% | 181 | 154 | $156 | 130,385 | 5 | Bleecker Street |
| Regretting You | $28,000 | -75% | 243 | -48 | $115 | 48,835,000 | 8 | Paramount Pi… |
| La grazia | $27,804 | 117% | 42 | 41 | $662 | 45,370 | 2 | MUBI |
| Atropia | $9,031 | 1 | $9,031 | 9,031 | 1 | VRC | ||
| You Got Gold A Celebration of John Prine | 6,155 | 6 | $1,026 | 45,182 | 3 | Abramorama F… | ||
| The Tale of Silyan | $6,051 | 10% | 19 | 14 | $318 | 25,896 | 3 | Picturehouse |
| The King of Color | $4,930 | 2 | $2,465 | 4,930 | 1 | Picturehouse | ||
| CatVideoFest 2025 | 4,446 | 2 | $2,223 | 1,066,592 | 20 | Oscilloscope… | ||
| Mistress Dispeller | 1,809 | -54% | 7 | n/c | $258 | $84,458 | 8 | Oscilloscope… |
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