Emotions are running high at and Disney as they open at the global this weekend, including a jolt of excitement over a last-minute bump in tracking. On Thursday, Hollywood’s leading tracking service the National Research Group upped its domestic opening forecast for the summer’s first animated tentpole from $85 million to $90 million. Tracking has been notoriously off this year, and especially this summer, so the decision to go out with a higher number is significant.
(For its part, Disney is sticking with $80 million to $85 million.) At this pace, has a strong shot of scoring the top domestic opening of the year to date, supplanting ($82.5 million).
Skies are also looking sunny overseas, where rolled out in its first eight international markets on Wednesday to the tune of $4.9 million. , with help from holdover , hopes to chase away the gloomy weather that has plagued the box office for weeks, sending year-over-year revenue down by more than 24 percent.
Illumination and Universal’s and Disney and Marvel Studios’ are two other summer tenptoles expected to do substantial business. And if early predictions are correct, will cross $100 million in its five-day debut over the Fourth of July holiday (it opens July 3). The family pic came on tracking Thursday, with one service suggesting a five-day haul of $110 million.
If works, it will be a needed boost for Pixar, which has endured several years of strife, including when the former Disney regime decided to send a trio of P.
