Leave it to a bunch of anthropomorphic animals to knock Deadpool off his lofty perch.
Walt Disney Pictures’ animated adventure Zootopia hit the big screen in a big way over the weekend, earning a record-breaking $73.7 million in U.S. theaters and $232.5 million worldwide and ending the three-week reign of “R”-rated superhero move Deadpool atop the box office. The film, which follows a rabbit cop in a world filled with talking animals, broke the record held by 2014’s Big Hero 6 to have the best opening weekend of all time for a film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.
It remains to be seen whether the big debut for Zootopia will lead to it passing the studio’s current highest-grossing film of all time, 2013’s Frozen — but the film’s overwhelmingly positive reviews and big premiere certainly don’t hurt its chances. Along with setting the studio’s opening-weekend record, Zootopia also ranks just behind Deadpool now with the year’s second biggest debut.
Also opening over the weekend was action sequel London Has Fallen, the second film currently in theaters starring Gerard Butler. While London Has Fallen managed a better opening weekend than Butler’s other new film, the box-office bomb Gods of Egypt, its $21.7 million premiere still fell short of the $30.4 million opening of its predecessor, 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen.
| # | Title | Weekend | U.S. Total | Worldwide Total |
| 1. | Zootopia | $73.7M | $73.7M | $232.5M |
| 2. | London Has Fallen | $21.7M | $21.7M | $21.7M |
| 3. | Deadpool | $16.4M | $311.1M | $673.2M |
| 4. | Whiskey Tango Foxtrot | $7.6M | $7.6M | $7.6M |
| 5. | Gods of Egypt | $5M | $22.8M | $72.4M |
| 6. | Risen | $3.9M | $28.6M | $29M |
| 7. | Kung Fu Panda 3 | $3.5M | $133.8M | $323.9M |
| 8. | The Revenant | $3.3M | $176M | $429.5M |
| 9. | Eddie the Eagle | $3.1M | $10.9M | $10.9M |
| 10. | The Witch | $2.5M | $20.9M | $21.5M |
The only other film to debut among the weekend’s ten highest-grossing movies was Tina Fey’s wartime comedy Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, which earned a bit less than pundits predicted for the movie despite positive reviews.
As for Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds’ raunchy adventure as the Marvel Comics mercenary continued to stay strong in theaters with another $16.4 million, and crossed the $300 million mark domestically.
This upcoming weekend isn’t likely to feature another new box-office champion, but mysterious Cloverfield pseudo-spinoff 10 Cloverfield Lane is likely to draw a crowd. The faith-based film The Young Messiah also arrives in theaters, and projects of that nature have a habit of performing better than expectations.
