As of now, Walt Disney and Pixar’s Coco has notched a $71.195 million five-day Thanksgiving holiday opening, including a $49m Fri-Sun frame. While that’s less than the likes of Frozen and Moana (and the adjusted earnings of Tangled from way back in 2010), it’s still the fourth-biggest five-day Thanksgiving debut ever and gives Walt Disney 14 out of the top 18 (including 10 out of the top 11) Thanksgiving openings ever.
Whether it plays like Tangled and gets a 3x multiplier (which puts it at around $215m domestic) or goes a little farther on word-of-mouth, demographic-specific buzz and the lack of mega movies for the next two weeks, it’s probably another big hit for Pixar.Of note, it’s the second Pixar original in just two years to get rave reviews and rock-solid box office. The media has been crowing about Pixar having lost its mojo since being bought outright by Disney back in 2006, and especially since Cars 2 became the first Pixar release to get majority negative reviews. Yet, the studio has essentially been doing what it has always done. Yes, we’ve had more sequels since 2010 (partially because the initial Pixar/Disney deal didn’t count sequels as part of the required films), but we’ve also had about as many non-sequels. Since 2010, we’ve had five sequels (Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Monsters University, Finding Dory and Cars 3) and four originals (Brave, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur and Coco).
Now that balance is going to get shifted in the next few years, as next summer brings The Incredibles 2 and the summer after that brings Toy Story 4. But here’s the thing: After that, what else is there left to sequel-ize? Call me crazy, but I don’t think the world is clamoring for sequels to Brave, A Bug’s Life or The Good Dinosaur, while the likes of Up and Wall-E are not exactly sequel-friendly. Yes, I suppose you could do Coco 2, The Incredibles 3 or Toy Story 4,516 somewhere down the line. Yet, Cars 3 arguably ended that franchise (give or take a Cruz Ramirez spin-off) and Ratatouille 2 isn’t exactly anyone’s top priority (great movie, strong overseas figures, but…
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