Disney's 'Zootopia 2' fuels box office frenzy with $556 million worldwide

Walt Disney's animated "Zootopia 2" racked up an estimated $556 million in global ticket sales over the US Thanksgiving weekend, providing a strong kickoff to Hollywood's crucial holiday moviegoing season.

Nearly half of the film's box office receipts from Wednesday through Sunday came from China, bucking a trend of Hollywood movies finishing behind locally made films.

The $272 million tally made Zootopia 2 Hollywood's highest-grossing animated movie in China, surpassing a record set by the first Zootopia in 2016.

Also in theaters, Universal Pictures' movie musical Wicked: For Good claimed $92.2 million worldwide in its second weekend, bringing its total to $393.3 million after 10 days.

The fervor for the two films provided welcome news for movie theater owners who hope audiences will pack cinemas through Christmas, the second-busiest time of the year for moviegoing. Annual box office sales have yet to recover to the pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019.

Zootopia 2 collected $156 million of its worldwide total in the United States and Canada, making it the leader on domestic box office charts. The movie, set in a city of animals, tells the story of a bunny police officer, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, and her fox partner, voiced by Jason Bateman.

"It’s a proud moment for Disney Animation and all of us at Disney, not to mention a great way to start the holiday season," Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman said in a statement.

Year-to-date domestic ticket sales reached $7.8 billion, up 1.2 per cent from a year ago but 23 per cent shy of 2019, according to data from Comscore.

Thanksgiving weekend sales are expected to rank among the top five of all time in the United States and Canada when final numbers come in on Monday, said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore's head of marketplace trends. Coming releases include James Cameron's third Avatar film just before Christmas.

"Think about how many people were in theaters over the past week being exposed to theater marketing and trailers," Dergarabedian said. "Hopefully that creates the momentum that can give us a really solid home stretch of the year."