Frozen is a hit. It’ll be days before we’ll know for sure exactly how big of a hit, but thanks to early box office numbers, we know for definite people are turning out in droves to see Disney’s latest. Perhaps more importantly, those very same people seem to be loving what they’re seeing too.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Frozen will likely gross more than eighty million dollars over the five day Thanksgiving weekend. That’s an impressive haul for the musical, especially considering the much-beloved Tangled didn’t break seventy million during the same weekend three years ago. In the coming days, that figure could even climb a little higher too as word of mouth is expected to be great. The earliest moviegoers collectively graded the effort with an A+ CinemaScore, which is exactly what The Best Man Holiday netted earlier this month. Assumedly, those very happy customers will in turn tell their friends who will go to the movies and become very happy customers themselves, setting off a chain reaction of good vibes and more than likely, links to the incredibly catchy soundtrack.
It’s always nice to see very good movies rewarded with the support they deserve. For the last handful of years, Disney has been cranking out exceptional efforts that have delivered laughs, smiles and moments of genuine humanity. Frozen continues that winning streak and in certain moments, even pushes it to another level. The music is very catchy and actually advances the story in most cases. The animation is on par with what the better studios are delivering, and the voice actors were perfectly cast.
Even with all that success, however, Frozen will still have its work cut out for it to win the weekend. Early estimates indicate The Hunger Games should push past ninety million over the five day weekend. If so, that would nudge the film past two hundred million dollars domestically in less than two weeks, which is an incredible accomplishment. I’m not sure I would give it the edge in a straight up quality battle against Frozen, but Catching Fire most definitely deserves all the success it’s getting too. Francis Lawrence’s film is wonderful, as well.
If you’re still not sold on going to see Frozen this weekend, I submit the following video as my trump card. It’s Idina Menzel belting out the utterly brilliant “Let It Go”. It’ll be decades before we know if it’ll be remembered as a fan favorite, but let’s just say it’s chances are pretty great.
