Thanksgiving Box Office: ‘Zootopia 2’ Rules With $19.7 Million, ‘Wicked: For Good’ Crosses $200 Million

“Zootopia 2” topped the Thanksgiving box office, earning $19.7 million on Thursday. The Disney animated sequel has earned an impressive $59.2 million domestically since opening on Tuesday night and is expected to collect $140 million to $150 million over the five-day holiday period.

And audiences continue to fall under Elphaba and Glinda’s spell, with “Wicked: For Good” taking second place on Thursday with $12.6 million. The film has earned a mighty $207.2 million after less than a week in theaters. “Wicked: For Good” should add more than $90 million to its haul over the five-day holiday to bring its domestic total to just under $270 million.

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The two films are turbocharging a box office that was desperately in need of a reset. Ticket sales in October fell to their lowest levels in three decades as films like “The Smashing Machine,” “Tron: Ares” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” flopped, and big-budget releases such as “One Battle After Another” failed to justify their high costs.

Even though “Zootopia 2” is proving to be a commercial juggernaut, its grosses will fall short of the record set by another Disney film, 2024’s “Moana 2,” which earned $139 million over the traditional weekend and $225 million over the five days. Past Thanksgiving openings of note include Disney’s 2019 sequel “Frozen II” ($125 million over the five days) and 2013’s “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” ($109 million over the five days).

The second “Zootopia” is dominating the international box office, earning $74 million to push its global total to a sizable $133.2 million. It is projected to pull in an additional $135 million to $145 million from foreign markets over its first five days of release. The film is doing particularly well in China, where Shanghai Disneyland recently debuted a Zootopia Land. It has grossed more than $54 million in its first two days in theaters, becoming one of the few Hollywood films to resonate at the Chinese box office since COVID — the country has instead turned to local-language productions as tensions with the U.S. have risen.

Directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, “Zootopia 2” follows a rabbit police officer (Ginnifer Goodwin) and con artist fox (Jason Bateman) as they reunite to pursue a mysterious new reptilian resident (Ke Huy Quan). 

Among indie films, A24’s “Eternity,” a rom-com set in the afterlife that stars Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, and Callum Turner, picked up $616,272 from 1,348 screens to bring its domestic haul to $2,1 million, while Focus Features’ “Hamnet,” a drama about the death of William Shakespeare’s son, picked up $160,000 from 160 locations to bring its gross to $480,000. “Hamnet” is considered to be an Oscar frontrunner, with critics lavishing praise on the work of director Chloe Zhao and stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.