“Walt Disney Animation Studios” Zootopia opened in North America this weekend along with China, Russia and Germany with $73.7 million domestic and $63.4 million worldwide (its fourth weekend of overseas release) for an impressive $137 million global weekend and a total global sum of $232.5 million.
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Zootopia helped the effort as a critic’s darling, scoring an eye-popping 98% positive critical rating on the film site RottenTomatoes.com and an A audience grade on CinemaScore.
Interestingly, Zootopia scored the biggest opening for a Disney “non-Pixar” animated film (i.e. Inside Out and Brave), Deadline Hollywood says.
In second place, “London Has Fallen”, a sequel to the “Die Hard” in the White House “Olympus Has Fallen”, earned $21.7 million. The top three are “Spider-Man” ($403.7 million), “Guardians of the Galaxy” ($333.1 million) and “Iron Man 3” ($318.4 million). It falls short of major hitters like Toy Story 3 ($110 million, 2010) and Inside Out ($90 million, 2015) but bests the likes of fearless ($66 million, 2012) and Cars 2 ($66 million, 2011).
Meanwhile, Tina Fey’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot only debuted to an estimated $7.6 million for the weekend, well under expectations of a double-digit opening.
Tina Fey was not as lucky as Butler. Paramount backed the $35 million dramedy about a war reporter who gets hooked on the adrenaline rush of covering Afghanistan. Deadpool just crossed $300 million at the domestic box office this weekend, bringing its domestic total to $311.2 million.
“Gods of Egypt” rounded out the top five, picking up $5 million. “The Revenant”, $12.5 million. 6.
On the limited-release front, following last week’s Oscar win for best picture, “Spotlight” expanded to about 1,200 screens.
At the specialty box office, Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups opened in four theaters to $56,688.
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March was once seen as a dumping ground for movies, but the success of spring releases like “The Hunger Games”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Cinderella”, and now “Zootopia” has shattered that prejudice, analysts say.
