Disney’s ‘Frozen’ passes $500 million in worldwide ticket sales

The holiday’s were good to Disney’s animated musical “Frozen.” After a big weekend, the loose retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” will pass the $500-million mark in worldwide ticket sales on Monday, the company said.

In the U.S. and Canada alone, the film grossed an estimated $28.8 million in its fifth weekend in wide release, almost matching the tally from the 3-week-old No. 1 movie “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” That’s a 47% jump from its take during the previous weekend, indicating that “Frozen” was a leading pick for families trekking to cinemas over the holiday weekend.

The total gross for “Frozen” is essentially split between domestic and international at around $250 million for each. Releasing the film, which features the voices of Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, at the end of November was clearly a sound decision, especially with no serious animated competition. Fox’s “Walking With Dinosaurs,” a 3-D computer-animation/live action hybrid, grossed around $7 million over the weekend.

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The movie won over critics and audiences, generating a 89% “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes and a grade of A-plus from moviegoers, according to the polling firm CinemaScore.

Starting off strong, “Frozen” scored the biggest wide opening ever for the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, grossing $93.6 million to beat the previous record-holder “Toy Story 2.”

Disney’s timing for “Frozen” was similar to its 2010 offering “Tangled.” “Frozen” has already surpassed the total domestic gross for “Tangled,” which was nearly $201 million. “Tangled” made almost $391 million overseas, bringing its worldwide total to about $592 million.

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ryan.faughnder@latimes.com