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‘Zootopia’ Beats ‘Frozen,’ Records Disney’s Highest Ever Opening Weekend Box Office Total

By Gregory Wakeman
Published on: 06:39 PST, Mar 6, 2016

Fans already knew that Zootopia had made an impressive start to its weekend at the box office, as it finally ended Deadpool’s three-week turn at the top of the chart.

However, now that the numbers and figures for Zootopia have been released, it has been revealed that the Disney Animated film has actually smashed the record for the studio’s largest opening weekend ever.

Comicbook.com has confirmed that Zootopia went on to gross $73.7 million over its opening weekend. The previous record holder for Disney Animation was Big Hero 6’s $56 million, while both Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled grossed $50 million, too.

What’s even more impressive is that Zootopia also beat the box office haul of Frozen, too. While Frozen only actually recorded $250,000 when it was originally released back in November 2013, that was because its limited release saw it only play in a single theater for its first seven days.

In its second week and first of a wide release Frozen went on to gross $67 million. This was just the beginning for Frozen, though, because the 2013 animated film went on to gross $1.276 billion and is still currently the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

Disney will now be hoping that Zootopia can get somewhere near to Frozen’s huge total, but first it will likely be aiming to get near their competitor studio’s gross of $970.7 million for Despicable Me 2, which is currently the fourth-highest grossing animated film of all time. Toy Story 3 grossed $1.063 billion and Minions took in $1.1 billion.

Zootopia has been met with stunning reviews since it was released on Friday. In fact, the Disney animated film currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 98 percent and it has even smashed the record for the website.

After gaining more than 75 reviews, Zootopia had a perfect 100 percent score, which is extremely rare on the website.

Matt Atchity, who is the Editor-In-Chief for Rotten Tomatoes, explained to The Wrap, “[More than 75] reviews at 100 percent is very unusual. Zootopia could be on that road to breaking records.”

Now that more reviews have come in for Zootopia its score has dropped by two percent. But while its now fallen just below the records of Toy Story 2 and Man On Wire, which have 100 percent records on Rotten Tomatoes from 163 reviews and 154 reviews, respectively, Zootopia is now on a par with Finding Nemo and Inside Out’s 98 percent, which they gathered from 251 reviews and 304 reviews.

Zootopia is set in a world and city that is full of animals. It pairs Jason Bateman’s con-artist fox and Ginnifer Goodwin’s bunny cop, who have to pair together to try and stop a conspiracy.

As well as starring the talents of Bateman and Goodwin, Zootopia also features the vocal talent of Bonnie Hunt, Idris Elba, Shakira, J.K. Simmons, Jenna Slate, and Octavia Spencer.

Critics have been quick to laud Zootopia, with some reviews even labeling it as “one of the greatest Disney animated movies the company has ever produced.”

Meanwhile, despite finally being knocked off top spot by Zootopia, Deadpool finished in third spot with a $16.4 million gross, which pushed its earnings in the United States alone to $311.2 million. Its already grossed $673 million worldwide, too.

Meanwhile London Has Fallen, the sequel to 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen, came in behind Zootopia as it grossed $21.7 million over its opening weekend. Another new release was Paramount’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, starring 30 Rock’s Tina Fey and Suicide Squad’s Margot Robbie, which came in fourth with a $7.6 million gross.

[Image via Disney]

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