If there was any doubt in your mind that Frozen II was going to make a gabillion dollars once it finally hit theaters, well, you can now take the L, because you were wrong. OK, gabillion is a bit of an overstatement, but billion is not. That's right, folks. Frozen II has now officially made $1 billion at the worldwide box office, and become Disney's sixth film to do so just this year. I hope some hard-working employees get a nice bonus at the end of 2019.
After releasing domestically on November 22 (yes, less than a full month ago), Frozen II is already a member of the billion dollar club. The film now joins Disney's Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin, Toy Story 4, The Lion King and Captain Marvel as the company's 2019 entries to cross the major movie milestone. According to Variety, Frozen II is also already the eighth-highest grossing movie of this year, and its release helped Disney become the first studio, ever, to top $10 billion in box office receipts in any calendar year. And, this doesn't even include any of the 20th Century Fox new releases that Disney now owns.
You know what this means, right? If Disney doesn't already own all of our hearts and minds (maybe literally), they certainly will soon.
If your mind is still reeling from the fact that Disney has made over $10 billion this year, then you're not considering one very important factor, so I'll give you another second to think about Disney releases in 2019...Not sure what I'm referring to just yet? Well, that's alright, it's been a busy year and the holidays can make remembering major movie releases even harder. This is when I remind you that, in just a few days, on December 20, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres.
Oh, sure. Now you remember buying those tickets as soon as they went on sale and panting and pacing like a lunatic until you were absolutely sure you had secured your preferred spot in the theater of your choosing on opening day.
At any rate, clearly Disney is going to be making a ton of additional dollars between now and the end of the year. The only real question is just how much Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker can make, worldwide, in a few days. Frozen II made $130 million in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, and while Star Wars fans are a much trickier lot than Frozen fans, there's already a dedicated group camping out in front of Hollywood's TCL Chinese Theater to see the film a whole week early.
Let's not forget that, even though some Star Wars devotees were quite displeased with The Last Jedi once they saw it, they've still been waiting for the Skywalker Saga to come to a close, not just for a couple of years, but for their whole lives. I don't think most real Star Wars fans are going to be willing to skip The Rise of Skywalker (What does that title even mean!) until the crowds potentially die down in 2020.
We can all see how Disney does with the remaining days of 2019 as Frozen II continues in theaters and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens. For what you can watch on the big screen in 2020, be sure to check out our new movie release schedule!
