Lost amid the would-be controversies over Interstellar and the robust debut of Dumb and Dumber To is the smashing success of
Now to be fair, Walt Disney would rather have boffo box office than copious media attention. Every year is filled with movies that are more talked about than seen, such as think-piece-friendly indies (Obvious Child) or unconventional releases (Snowpiercer). I'm sure if given a choice that most studios would actually prefer to rack up massive damage at the multiplex cash registers as opposed to being endlessly written about or dissected, although blessed is the film that can manage both (Gone Girl, with each ticket coming with an implicit promise to pen a think piece, you are truly a diamond in the rough). Walt Disney probably isn't too busted up about a lack of "What Big Hero 6 gets wrong about science and stuff" articles or even more salutatory pieces about the film's success that didn't quite materialize after the opening weekend reports dropped. I too am guilty of this as well, as I spent last Monday morning defending Interstellar's good-but-not-great $47 million Fri-Sun debut frame.
With $111 million after ten days, the film is currently running 19% ahead of Wreck It Ralph ($93m in ten days respectively), although its first Tuesday was Veteran's Day while Wreck It Ralph had no such luxury. Speaking of Veteran's Day, Big Hero 6 earned $10.508m on Tuesday, the biggest non-weekend Veteran's Day gross ever behind The Incredibles back earned $11m on Veteran's Day back in 2004. It was also the year's biggest non-weekend single day gross behind the first Monday and Tuesday for Guardians of the Galaxy. It stands to reason that the film will leapfrog over Ralph's $189m domestic total and end with as much as $225m domestic and as much as $560m worldwide, give or take various variables. If it gets much higher than that, it will be among the year's top-grossing films domestically and globally, even when you factor in the massive future totals for The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay part I and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.
Now there is a ton of family competition during the last two weeks of the year (Into the Woods, Annie, Night at the Museum 3, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, etc.) to say nothing of Penguins of Madagascar dropping a week from Wednesday. But with strong word-of-mouth and strong holdover numbers from its second weekend, it stands to reason that Big Hero 6 will end up hovering around the top-ten biggest releases of the year. It will not be the first film to earn massive box office totals with nary a peep from the entertainment media beyond weekend box office updates, but said phenomenon always strikes me as amusing when it occurs.
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Walt Disney's Big Hero 6 has crossed $100 million domestic on its tenth day, which makes it the fastest-grossing Disney animated (non-Pixar) film outside of Frozen (The Lion King was at $104m on its eleventh day, which was July 4th, 1994). The film dropped 35% on its second weekend, just a shade higher than Wreck it Ralph (-32% in weekend two) and earned $36.01m over its second weekend, which is the biggest second weekend gross for a Disney animated film ever. Now there is no law that film writers have to only talk about films that make lots of money, be they ranked #1 at the box office or #23. The fact that Big Hero 6 is a big hit doesn't mean a thing for those who did or didn't like it. But it is a pretty big hit, one that solidifies the narrative of Walt Disney's reemerging dominance of the American animation marketplace alongside Pixar.
It seems to be making its money under the proverbial cover of darkness. At the very least, this may have an effect on its Oscar chances in the Best Animated Feature Category as it faces off primarily against (presumably)
