One week before it caps off 2025 with the massive “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” Disney defined the box office weekend with Hollywood’s biggest hit of the year thus far with “Zootopia 2” and one of the worst wide openings of the year with 20th Century/Gracie Films’ “Ella McCay.”
“Zootopia 2,” which became the fastest Hollywood animated film to reach $1 billion on Friday, earned $26.3 million in its third weekend in the U.S. and $157.4 million worldwide. That brings the film’s total to $1.13 billion, passing $250 million in the U.S. and $500 million in China.
“Ella McCay,” meanwhile, has crashed with an opening weekend of just $2.1 million from 2,500 locations. That’s not the worst wide opening of 2025 — that still belongs to the Sydney Sweeney boxing biopic “Christy” with $1.3 million from 2,184 locations — but it will still rank among the top 50 all-time worst opening weekend for a film with a screen count of at least 2,000.
Given how Hollywood has found it difficult to market films intended for older audiences in a media landscape where cable, once the most capable means of advertising, is in decline, “Ella McCay” was already facing an uphill battle in theaters. But its fate was likely sealed when it received largely negative reviews with a 22% Rotten Tomatoes score. The moviegoers who did see the film on opening day were tepid as well with a B- on CinemaScore and a 52% RT audience score.
The only good thing that can be said about this result is that it won’t be much of a financial hit for Disney given its reported $35 million production budget. Between the ongoing historic run for “Zootopia 2” and the upcoming release of “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which could gross $2 billion worldwide, this is a bust that, at least financially, the studio can shrug off.
Elsewhere, Universal/Blumhouse-Atomic Monster’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is No. 2 with $19.5 million, a steep but expected 70% drop from its $63 million opening weekend. The horror sequel based on the hit indie horror video game series is just as frontloaded as its 2023 predecessor. But given its mid-sized budget and strong start from a big fanbase, “FNAF2” is already a hit with $95 million domestic and $173 million worldwide.
Universal’s “Wicked: For Good” is in third with $8.5 million in its fourth weekend. While still a box office success, the second half of Jon M. Chu’s Broadway duology is running out of gas way faster than last year’s installment, falling well short of the $758 million global total of the first “Wicked” with a running total of $312 million domestic and $467 million worldwide.
In fourth is the Hindi action thriller “Dhurandhar” with $3.5 million from just 377 theaters, earning a per theater average of $9,416 that is best among all films this weekend as it has a two-weekend total of just under $8 million. Lionsgate’s “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” completes the top 5 with $2.3 million, bringing its total to $59.8 million after five weekends.
On the specialty side, Focus Features/Amblin’s “Hamnet” continues to hold strong in its third weekend with $1.5 million from 749 theaters, bringing its total to $7 million as it continues a theatrical run that will continue through at least January.
