Disney’s The Princess and the Frog dominated the pre-holiday weekend with a $25 million nationwide debut, pushing the frame up over the same weekend last year. The 2-D animated flick introducing the first African-American princess Tiana proved to be a big hit with audiences, earning an A from exit pollster Cinemascore. It has now grossed close to $28 million including its $2 million from 2-week limited engagement and should be one of the highest-grossing movies of the upcoming holiday season. The studio was also able to bookend the top 5 with its well-playing holdover The Christmas Carol, which fell only 11% in its sixth week to $6.8 million.
Filling in the gaps were The Blind Side, which in the number two spot fell only 23% its fourth weekend in theaters. The Sandra Bullock crowd pleaser added $15.4 million to its $150 million total. The other new wide release of the frame, Clint Eastwood’s Invictus opened to a weak $9 million. But with an A- score from exit polls, the Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman-starrer is likely to play well in the weeks to come. Place four belonged to The Twilight Saga: New Moon which grossed an additional $8 million to push its astounding total at $267 million.
The top 12 was up 8% compared to last year at this time when The Day the Earth Stood Still debuted at $30 million. And the box office is sure to cross the $10 billion mark for the year next week when the behemoth Avatar from James Cameron opens worldwide next weekend. Hollywood and box office prognosticators everywhere will be closely watching how the expensive sci-fi extravaganza performs. Stay tuned.
More movie coverage from EW:
Weekend box office chart (12/13)
OscarWatch: Boston Film Critics honor The Hurt Locker
The Movie Critics blog: Lisa Schwarzbaum and Owen Gleiberman on all things movies
Avatar, It’s Complicated, The Lovely Bones, and more EW movie reviews
i actually want to see the princess and the frog, it seems so good!
you should see it. it is good.
You should. It’s AMAZING!!! I can’t wait to own it. They did such a fantastic job with capturing the culture of New Orleans. I loved it more than UP.
Celia, I completely agree! half way through the movie, I thought, “yep, gotta have this one.”
I completely agree. Halfway through the movi, I said I have to get this one.
You definitely should see it. Absolutely gorgeous. And I agree with the other posters. I walked out of the theatre very excited to own this movie.
$25 million seems kind of low, but I know that’s pretty much in line with what the studio was expecting.
Hopefully it will have strong legs.
It saddens me that Chipmunks 2 will probably make twice as much it’s opening weekend.
Yes but Chipmunks 2 does have Zach Levi – the only reason I’ll be going to see it
Still no excuse.
Zachary Levi is on TV for free on a show that needs our support, not in a movie that sure as hell doesn’t.
At least he’s a voice in the next traditionally animated Disney flick due out either next year or 2011.
NOOO!! I just lost tons of respect for Zach.
The Princess and the Frog looks like a good movie. I want to see that, and Invictus.
Hmmm…so the first Chipmunks movie starred Jason Lee. After its release, My Name Is Earl is cancelled.
Now this stars Zachary Levi…maybe now Chuck will be cancelled?
Could be some rodent movie kiss of death pattern brewing…(fingers crossed)…Mmmuahahahaha!
I think Princess and the Frog will do well in the long run. I had to sit through the first Chipmunk movie and it was tortue. The things we do for our kids.
God I saw the previews for that stupid Chipmunk movie and just thought I’d have to be chained to my seat to watch that! It looked so stupid! But you’re right that it probably will bump the Princess and the Frog.
That’s in line with the majority of cartoons.
Looking forward to it as well. Word of mouth has been great so hopefully things will pick up.
I’m really surprised that PatF getting $25 million is all it did. I think it’ll have good legs, though, and I bet a lot of families are waiting for Christmas break to see it.
Not a kid…not waiting for christmas break. I plan to see it sometime this week. I love 2D animation. I also need to see the blind side. Maybe next weekend.
Will definitely be seeing this. Hopefully next weekend. I can see it performing well through the holidays though.
Shame for Invictus. it was a really good movie. But it probably will grow some legs for the next month or so due to the Oscars season.
I think Invictus will be fine, especially if it’s nominated for several Oscars. It’s one of those movies people seem to be iffy about until they hear from someone else that THEY liked it, and so on. It’s a “word of mouth” movie.
I thought it was a great uplifting movie. Great performances by both Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon… I really enjoyed it. Don’t let the rugby get in the way of what is a good story.
I saw it yesterday and fell in love. It was sooo good. Since I’m part of the Disney generation, that had a new Disney animated movie out each summer, I was transported back to my childhood. Great movie. Great music. It might be worth it for me to buy the soundtrack.
Same here TD. Such a great movie for so many different reasons. If you’re a princess fan you’ll love, if you like classic Disney animation you’ll love it, if you’re a kid at heart you’ll love it, If you’re proud that Disney finally has an black princess you’ll love it! Such a great movie for kids of all ages! Now Disney..all we need is a Latina Princess!!
hmmm … a movie about a ghetto gurl wanting to become a princess? That dont seem realistic to me. i think they should keep princesses like theyre supposed to be … like snow white son! we need more ghetto movies like boyz in da hood!
EW has terrible trolls. Go train on LJ or something.
Hey! Don’t send them over to LJ! We don’t want them there either!
You don’t have a clue of what you are talking about. You should think and read before you speak. Tiana does NOT want to become a princess. She wants to open a restaurant and the prince, while being a frog, mistakes her for a princess at a costume ball.
TaShawn, you’re a white girl trying to write like a black ghetto girl. I can tell. You can’t even use the slangs properly. Epic effing fail, biatch
Um… she didn’t want to be a princess, you idiot. And the last thing we (and I’m black) need are more “ghetto movies.”
Thank You!!
Define ghetto!! I saw the movie and there was nothing ghetto about it.
Yeah Boyz in the Hood sums up all lives for Black people. We all come from the ghetto and have no class! You should be ashamed of yourself for making such a stupid comment.
I’m black and proud and although I dont’ have a problem with snow white I can’t relate to her. The princess and the frog is a positive movie for ages and colors but especially for blacks.
I hope to god you don’t have any Kids. You stupid fool!!!!
o_O
The Princess and the Frog was incredible. I have a feeling there will be lots of repeat traffic for this one. I know I’ll definitely be going to check it out again. Easily the best Disney movie since Beauty and the Beast
I saw Invictus last night and it was marvelous. Slow and subtle but excellent and moving.
Agreed. Excellent movie.
GREAT MOVIE!!! My step-daughter and I enjoyed it very much. Disney gets an A+ for their superb, old school animation, and for finally having the COURAGE to create a fictional African-American Princess (Took them long enough, HAHAHA!!!) My only nit-pick is – I thought the Prince should have been African-American too, and not some Middle Eastern looking dude from “Aladdin”, oh well I guess you can’t have everything. Once again, WAY TO GO DISNEY!!!!!!! Now finally little African-American girls can play with pretty dolls that look like them. As a parent, it’s very difficult to explain why there are NO AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRINCESS’S DOLLS at Toys R Us. Like King Obama said – “Change is good!”
I assume you are a black man. Did it bother you that Tiana had more European-looking features than African? At least to me it seemed she did, like make her skin lighter and she could have been Ariel or any one of those white princesses. I’m just curious what you thought, or if you thought the same thing, because you mentioned African-American girls thinking she looked like them, but I don’t necessarily see it, beyond the color of her skin. Also her figure was very much the stereotypical European princess figure. Maybe it’s just that she was Disneyfied.
Yeah “Question”, I get what you’re saying but all black girls are not plus sized,or not one particular size I’m black and I’m skinny as a beanpole, to me size and features don’t matter and people are making this into a lot of other issues when we should see it for what it is: A great 2D animation movie for kids and adults.
Question..Tiana’s features were based on those of her portrayer Anika-Noni Rose. I can’t speak for Ms. Rose, but I know in my family along with my prodominately African heritage, I have some European heritage in there too. Anika-Noni Rose is a beautiful petite woman and I’m proud they chose her to be the model for wonderful character with such determination and heart. Stop being a buzz-kill and enjoy the film for what it is.
She modeled after the black actress Anika Noni Rose. Those features are hers and she is black.
What shape was she supposed to have? You must have seen the wrong movie.
Oh, and her skin color is not even close to one of those white princesses!!!
So tired of all the haters. We have come a long way, finally get that black princess, and we get a shit load of complaints. I’m happy there is a black princess!!
i think the message that what you need (love) is more important than what you want (money, a restaurant, to be human to play the trumpet in a jazz band, etc) should be more important than what color your skin is. love knows no color, and while that’s not the main message Disney was trying to send with their film, I think it’s a lesson that we should all learn.
The Princess and the Frog was an excellent movie–though slightly different and more modern from the older princess movies, it fit right in in its own way. The music, plotline, characters–it was all fabulously done. I loved it and would definitely see it again.
yey! i’m so glad it did well, now we can see so many more 2d classic disney movies coming out!!!
Interesting weekend. Some thoughts…
1. Shocked that Princess’s total wasn’t higher, but I think it’s going to keep playing strong throughout the season, so I’m not fussed. It was quite good and deserves all the money it gets.
2. The Blind Side’s soft drops are pretty outstanding.
3. Invictus was also great and I hope it picks up steam off of word of mouth and the awards season.
4. New Moon isn’t going to reach $300 million and will probably be #4 domestically (after Up) and #6 globally (after 2012). This is before Avatar, of course. Unless Avatar breaks the bank, it looks like Transformers (U.S.) and Harry Potter (worldwide) are the champs this year.
5. Smart move for Disney opening A Christmas Carol so early in November. A long, steady run seems to have been the best option.
Good for HP. For a series that’s been going on for over ten years (counting the books), the fact that it still maintains such a worldwide appeal is nothing short of astounding. And well-deserved, but that’s my opinion.
I tend to think so, too, and I so rarely see ANYONE (*cough* EW *cough*) mention this longevity. By the time Deathly Hallows: Part II comes out, the HP series will have been in existence, in some form, for 14 years! And it’s still top of the box off 12 years after the first book was published and 2 years after the last book was published.
To put it in perspective, who here thinks that a Twilight film could make $300 million in the U.S. and $930 million globally in 2017? Because that’s the equivalent of what Half-Blood Prince just did.
Yeah, the fact that it’s still doing so well, even though most people know how it ends now, is amazing. I was a little afraid that the interest would die down after the last book came out, but it seems like it’s only grown in popularity. Not something you see every day, and proof that it’s more than just a passing fad.
Woaw, that’s true, the first HP movie was released almost ten years ago ! I feel old !
true James, but New Moon did have a smaller budget (not to put down HP)
And it shows. A crappy looking movie is a crappy looking movie, whether you spend 300 million or 50 million on it. I mean, Kudos to Summit, I guess, for getting people to watch a movie that looks that bad, but again, we’re talking about longevity here, and the HP movies are already standing the test of time, because they’re well-made. Whether they got a big payday or not, the same can’t be said for the Twilight movies.
Tina, New Moon had a smaller budget because Summit is greedy, and they knew people would see it whether it looked good or not, so they didn’t see the point in spending the money to make it look good. This was one of the things people were complaining about when New Moon’s budget was first announced.
I totally agree about the budget though. You’d think summit would reward it’s fanbase by giving them a better budget… not increasing it by a meager 20 million. Though congrats to Harry Potter, it deserves its longevity.
Tina, even though Twilight had a much smaller budget, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has still been more profitable when you take into account worldwide grosses. And I agree, Summit should have given New Moon a bigger budget so at least the film would have looked better. It was basically a guaranteed hit no matter how much some people will try to convince you otherwise. But they kept the budget small because they are greedy and knew that a lot of the fans wouldn’t criticize it either way.
Yeah I’m happy to see that New Moon won’t crack the $300 million dollar mark.After that huge opening it dropped like a rock just like everyone knew it would.
Yeah, it was really front-loaded. It might pick up when schools let out, but if it keeps going at the rate it’s going now, I don’t see it doing $300 million. And if it does do $300 million, it’ll be just barely.
New Moon probably will just reach 300 million. At least that’s what most box office estimators think.
Also, it has already exceeded the box office gross of a few of the winter HP releases.
Like someone else mentioned, it is also expected to pick back up when schools let out.
HP6 was released during the summer, so it had a huge advantage. The real contest will be seeing how Eclipse does, since it will have a summer IMAX release.
And this is coming from someone who doesn’t even like Twilight. These are just the facts.
I don’t think most “box office estimators” thought it would drop so much week over week.
Which winter HP releases has it exceeded, exactly? It hasn’t beaten Stone or Goblet, and it’s virtually tied with Chamber. And given that Chamber grossed $261 million seven years ago, with all the inflation since then, that’s not really saying a whole lot. For perspective, Stone’s $317 million in 2001 would be something like $400 million today. Even if you ignore inflation and go dollar-for-dollar, EVERY HP winter movie, worldwide, has out-grossed New Moon.
Eclipse opening in IMAX is a joke; there’s nothing IMAX-worthy about any of the Twilight movies, which should be obvious whether you’re a fan or not.
Seems your facts don’t quite add up, but hey, you’re “someone who doesn’t even like Twilight,” so it’s cool.
Well, let’s compare Chamber of Secret’s totals to New Moon’s potential totals then. It’s a pretty fair comparison. Both are the second in the series, both were released in November, and neither were released in IMAX. Chamber of Secret’s box office, when adjusted for inflation, would be around 310 million now. Even if New Moon scrapes 300 million, it won’t beat CoS, when you factor in what it would’ve made in today’s market.
And in fact, New Moon was released in more theaters than Chamber of Secrets was.
but New Moon had a lower budget, just saying if you want to fairly compare them
And Alex, don’t forget that you should really look at worldwide grosses. Chamber of Secrets grossed about 878 million worldwide. I think New Moon right now is around 600 million or so (maybe higher, I’m not sure after this weekend). So Chamber of Secrets is the hands-down winner. You don’t even have to bother figuring out inflation to see that.
@Blue, Chamber of Secrets had a $100 million budget, compared to New Moon’s $50 million budget. Even if New Moon were to make it to 700 million worldwide (which won’t happen), Chamber of Secrets is still the more profitable film. As is this year’s Half-Blood Prince.
It’s kind of funny how a lot of people criticized Nicole Sperling for her weekend predictions because she predicted that The Princess and the Frog would gross 24 million, and everyone thought she was severely underestimating how much the film would make, and some people even ridiculed her for it. Looks like she was basically right on point.
I admit to being VERY skeptical that Frog would only make $24 million, and I’m still surprised that it only pulled $25 million. It seemed awfully low for a major Disney release, and I still think it is, even when it’s come to pass.
And Nicole’s had her share of boo-boos in the past few weeks, so I guess she’s due.
Hi
I actually looked up box office for all recent Disney princess type movies. None opened at #1. All made less than the Princess and the Frog. So actually it did really well. I think our expectations are skewed because of Twilight/Harry/big blockbusters but G-rated cartoons have a really different box office cycle.
I loved the Princess and the Frog
But I think Nicole will be having the last laugh on this one. She’s normally pretty spot on when it comes to this sort of thing
Except when she’s not. She high-balled New Moon last week by $2 million — not a lot but significant when there’s not much difference between the top films — and didn’t even have Brothers in the top 5, and it finished at #3.
She was spot on about 2012
And this is exactly why no one should get peeved over predictions. We all thought Nicole underestimated The Princess and the Frog’s returns, only to find out she was pretty accurate by week’s end. And for some of you who’re ready to reply with, “well, Nicole was wrong about *insert film* by *insert amount*, do yourself a favor and don’t get too heated. Predictions are supposed to be fun speculations, and not something to ridicule people for.
Now newt week with Avatar…I don’t think anybody can expect how much it’ll make.
I freely admit that I thought Nicole was totally nuts with $24 million, so I guess I’ll apologize. It does seem terrifically low though, given the broad appeal. I hope it does do really well in the long run, it was a great film.
Avatar is probably the hardest film to predict this year. It could either post insanely high numbers, or it could totally underwhelm. I don’t envy anyone the opportunity to make those first predictions.
What you guys are failing to understand is that the film industry does sophisticated box office modeling that includes awareness polling (i.e. they call random people and ask if they are aware of the film and intend to see it). They aren’t just pulling $24 million out of their butts. I don’t know for certain that Nicole has access to that market data, but I wouldn’t doubt it.
Exactly t3hdow. That’s why I posted my original comment. I didn’t understand why some people got so heated over her predictions. It’s just not worth it.
And Kelsey, while the film does have somewhat of a broad appeal, seeing as how adults and kids alike are interested, it’s not as broad as you would think. By having the word “princess” in the title, you definitely limit the amount of children that will be interested. There are a lot of young boys who would never beg their parents to take them to a movie with “princess” in the title because it’s automatically thought of as “girly.” Not all boys, but a significant amount of them will have this attitude. And this was something that Nicole wisely pointed out in her prediction.
I’m actually suprised it did as well as it did. Disney did not market the movie, AT ALL. As someone who parks his butt in front of a tv for an embarassing amount of time a day, I have not seen ONE SINGLE advertisement for it. Besides for the coverage EW has given it, it hasn’t gotten a lot of press.