That sound you hear is the folks over at Disney popping a couple dozen bottles of champagne — Zootopia didn’t just open at number one at the box office, it had the biggest opening of any film in the history of Walt Disney Animation Studios, beating out 2014’s Frozen. Unfortunately, the rest of the newcomers didn’t fare quite as well, with London Has Fallen and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot limping into second and fourth place, respectively.

FilmWeekendPer Screen
1Zootopia$73,700,000$19,258$73,700,009
2London Has Fallen$21,714,000$6,222$21,714,000
3Deadpool$16,400,000 (-47%)$4,525$311,158,132
4Whiskey Tango Foxtrot$7,600,000$3,201$7,600,000
5Risen$3,885,000 (-43%)
$1,550$28,650,923
6Kung Fu Panda 3$3,525,000 (-60%)$1,306$133,831,833
7The Revenant$3,325,000 (-16%)$2,235$175,976,921
8Eddie the Eagle$3,100,000 (-49%)$1,517$10,861,132
9The Witch$2,509,453 (-50%)$1,463$20,920,027
10Triple 9$2,128,347 (-65%)$965$10,239,381

 

It remains to be seen just how well Zootopia will perform in the long run, but Frozen ultimately went on to gross $400 million at the domestic box office alone and it remains a sensation to this day. This is the kind of opening that feels like a precursor to a gross of at least $300 million, especially since family entertainment tends to hang around for a great deal longer than most other types of movies. However, the second weekend will provide all of the necessary evidence as to whether this is going to be a box office success or something more. If families like this movie (and people seem very warm on it), it’s easy to imagine it reaching those Frozen heights, especially since the upcoming Batman v Superman isn’t exactly catering to young folks.

Interestingly, you’d think that an opening like this would come after a long dry spell for family fare, but Kung Fu Panda 3 is still in theaters and still doing decent business. However, it’s looking to tap out with $150 million at the domestic box office and Zootopia should fly past that in no time at all, barring a huge disaster. There is probably something to be said here about what audiences are looking for in a talking animal film.

Meanwhile, London Has Fallen opened in second place with $21 million, a steep drop from Olympus Has Fallen’s $30 million opening. Heck, that’s less than White House Down’s $24 million opening weekend and that was the box office failure of 2013’s White House siege movies. London Has Fallen isn’t particularly expensive for a movie of its type (it often looks like a made-for-TV movie) and it stands a chance at breaking even in the long run, but don’t expect to see any more Has Fallen movies anytime soon…until Gerard Butler embraces his destiny as a DTV star. And then we’ll get one every two years or so.

The third of the weekend’s new releases, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, opened in fourth place with a dismal $7 million, offering further proof that Tina Fey isn’t a movie star unless she’s paired with Amy Poehler. That’s a shame.

The rest of the top 10 was business as usual. The Revenant continued to do solid and steady business. Eddie the Eagle and Triple 9 continued to bomb. The Witch is still a minor success relative to its budget. Risen is doing fine, if unspectacular, business for a movie of its kind. But once again, the real story here is Deadpool, which continues to be a big, huge, spectacular success despite falling to third place. The R-rated superhero comedy grossed $16 million in its fourth weekend, bringing the film to a jaw-dropping $311 million. Batman v Superman will stop it dead in its tracks later this month, but until then, the sky is the limit.

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