The list of accolades for Disney’s Frozen is turning into a pretty lengthy one. It became just the seventh movie in the last 50 years to be No. 1 at the box office on two separate occasions at least six weeks apart. The film has managed to stay in theaters for more than two months when many other titles have already come and gone. The soundtrack was on top of the Billboard Top 200 for two weeks. Frozen already won a Golden Globe for best animated film and is up for the same category at the Academy Awards (along with best song for “Let It Go”).
Frozen is a great movie, but it also happened to stumble upon a perfect storm at the box office. With a release date right around Thanksgiving, it got to capitalize on two big holidays with limited competition. Sure, some other heavy hitters like The Hobbit and American Hustle came out in that span, but outside of those films and a few other contenders like Anchorman 2, the rest of the lineup (especially in January) was pretty bland.
Frozen is already the seventh-highest-grossing movie of all-time. Let that sink in for a minute. Surging past the $800 million mark worldwide over the weekend, it moved past The Lion King the become the second-best Disney release ever (behind Finding Nemo) — and the movie hasn’t even opened in places like Japan and China yet. In the U.S., Frozen has slid into the No. 1 spot for all Disney movies — earning almost $350 million in the United States alone.
All that said, if for some reason you haven’t seen the picture yet and you enjoy animated movies, you should go check it out. Personally, I liked Tangled a little bit better than Frozen, but both were highly entertaining, and they followed a similar pattern of gaining speed after their first week thanks to word of mouth. Odds are your local theater is still offering at least a couple showings a day. And if not, well…
Disney announced last week that it was going to further push the envelope of Frozen’s success by re-releasing it later this week as a sing-along in at least a thousand theaters nationwide. The new version will be like a lot of Disney’s sing-along releases from way back when — the words will be on the screen with a snowflake bouncing on top to help with timing, and the audience is encouraged to join in.
Sure, you’ll probably have your share of off-key voices in the theater, but enthusiasm goes a long way. Besides, how often do you get an excuse to be noisy at the movies?
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.