‘Zootopia 2’ Predicted To Have Huge Opening While ‘Wicked For Good’ Hit $150 Million Domestically

The box office is finally picking up with the release of “Wicked For Good” and “Zootopia 2”.  Both films are set to bring people back to theaters.

Zootopia 2 

Estimates for ‘Zootopia 2’ are coming in at around $125 million for the Thanksgiving five-day weekend. I think it will go much higher.

I was checking my local theaters, and the showings are filling up quickly. The one my family and I are going to only has a couple of seats left.  This was a stark difference from “Tron: Ares,” where my husband and I were the only two people in the theater at opening. It was the same time of day, too.

Depending on how good the film is, I could see it possibly hitting the billion-dollar mark for Disney.

This is why Disney is pushing sequels over new IP. People will come out and pay for something they know they love. With many struggling in this economy, they will only spend money on something they feel FOMO (fear of missing out) for.

Wicked For Good

“Wicked For Good” opened this past weekend and hit $150 million domestic from Thursday – Sunday.  The only film that beat this in 2025 was “A Minecraft Movie” at $163 million.

Globally, the film made $226 million on opening.

Box Office Decline Isn’t Due to Post-Strike / Post-COVID issues

I keep seeing articles blaming the failure of films like “Snow White”, “Tron: Ares”, and “Running Man” on “post-strike” or “post-COVID” boogeymen. The box office is down for a couple of reasons.

1. You need to give people films they want to go out and see. 

This is why “A Minecraft Movie,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, “Wicked”, “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” “Demon Slayer”, etc. do so well. People want to pay to go see these films.

2. The economy sucks

Tied to the first reason, the economy is not great, and people don’t have as much money, so they are being more picky about what they spend it on.

3. Streaming

The first two reasons lead me to the third one- streaming. Hollywood has taught audiences that if you wait a short time, you can watch the films for “free” with your streaming subscription. Why pay more when you can wait a couple of months?

Customers are only coming out to see films they know are ones they will enjoy or are about things they love, like video games.

Finally, Hollywood has a couple of movies out that people will pay to see in theaters.

What do you think? Comment and let us know.