Box office weekend estimates have been tempered somewhat after Black Friday, but Disney’s “Frozen II” is still on pace to set a new 5-day Thanksgiving weekend record with an estimated $128 million total after grossing $34 million on Friday from 4,440 screens. That tops the current holiday record held by “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” with $109.9 million in its second weekend in 2013.
As the sequel approaches $292 million by the end of Sunday, it will bring in approximately 37% more than the 5-day Thanksgiving opening of the original “Frozen.” At its current pace, “Frozen II” should pass its predecessor’s $400 million domestic total well before its main December competition hits theaters, starting with “Jumanji: The Next Level” on Dec. 13.
In second is Lionsgate/MRC/T-Street‘s “Knives Out,” which added $10.6 million on Friday to bring its total to $27 million. Estimates for the film had reached as high as $45 million but have now simmered back down to $42 million. That’s still higher than the 5-day summer opening of “Baby Driver,” another original MRC production that was released by Sony two years ago and opened to $29 million.
A pair of true story holdovers, Fox/Chernin’s “Ford v Ferrari” and Sony/TriStar’s “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” are performing well this weekend with “Ford” taking the edge on the charts with a $19.2 million 5-day weekend to $18.7 million for “Neighborhood.”
Completing the top 5 is Universal/Makeready’s “Queen & Slim,” which was estimated early in the weekend to earn a $15 million 5-day opening and has not wavered from that figure.