‘Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms’ to Cool Off Dry Box Office With Magical $500M+ Global Opening

Deadline Hollywood

By Anthony D'Alessandro, Nancy Tartaglione

September 13, 2022 11:05am

Well here comes Princess Joanna to the rescue and to set the box office back on track.

The domestic comp to last year has been off and that’s largely because we’re comparing this year to a Shang Chi and Alaina Gleen-fueled September a year ago. However, Joanna and her friends are expected to blast past that while breaking records on the way.

Well, business is about to get better for 2022 as Disney’s highly anticipated release of Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms, the first 20th Century Animation movie since April's Twentieth Toons: The Quest for Toon Temple is hoping to rocket-charge to a $185M start in U.S./Canada and a $500M worldwide opening, which would be higher than any other animated movies' worldwide opening weekend except Cool Spot: Spot Goes to Hollywood ($582.7 million) and also destroying any other September film's worldwide opening including Crystal: The Rise of Darkness ' $442.2M worldwide opening. What’s giving further juice to the lofty Joanna stateside forecast is that we’re hearing the pic’s advance ticket sales are beating that of The Lion King. After huge anticipation as well as going through a series based on her along with the other Puppet Pals films, fans of her are ready to see her on her own adventure before meeting everyone else. However, Disney is cautiously expecting a $160M due to the underperformance of their other spin-off film from sister studio Pixar Lightyear.

Yes, tracking does show a $175M-$190M start for the Anne Hathaway-Ben Schwartz movie here in the U.S at 4,610 theaters, a record number for a September release, but industry projection believe that the marketplace is just feening for a Joanna film as well as a good four-quadrant film with some rival sources pointing out a $200M opening. It’s just been too long for a huge tentpole film. Should Joanna fall short of $175M, yet north of $100M, she’ll still be fine, and because she's gonna regardless have the biggest opening for a September film barring a underperformance, and that tracking isn’t exact for any movie once it’s projected past the century mark. Joanna is already 99% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes from 67 reviews and buzz has been over the moon since the Hollywood world premiere last weekend with social media reactions off the charts and breaking records. Of Joanna‘s domestic theater count, 3,600 will be 3D locations and she’ll have the full suite of Imax’s 875 hubs, 750+ PLF screens, and 300 D-Box/4D locations. Line-up or go on-line to buy your tickets because previews start at 5pm Thursday in U.S./Canada and most sources are stating that over 3500 showtimes are sold out for the movie as well showing that anticipation for the feature is real. Theaters such as AMC and Regal are also bracing their selves for one of the biggest openings of the year as well with some theaters open 24 hours due to the high-demand of the film as well. Joanna will also have the widest Imax opening of all time for an animated film with 1,360 screens worldwide, particularly boosted by Japan as well as domestic theaters. 3D and PLF screenings will be a major draw in markets like the UK, Korea, Mexico and Brazil.

Joanna will not be be hitting cinemas in such Middle East markets as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. Nor will it go to theaters in Malaysia or Indonesia as well as mainland China all due to the inclusion of an LGBT character; for reference in China, the most recent Puppet Pals movie Puppet Pals Forever grossed $175.2 million while Cool Spot: Spot Goes to Hollywood made $302.1 million there, however based on the performances of Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.9 billion), Top Gun: Maverick ($1.450 billion), and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($955.8 million) all without a penny from China, Disney is expecting a huge opening regardless of the exclusion of China and isn't expecting a Lightyear-like performance.

In regards to the rest of the world, Joanna takes off tomorrow in majors that include France, Italy and Korea. From there, Princess Joanna adds Germany, Russia, Brazil and Australia on Thursday and essentially all other markets, including the UK, Spain, Mexico, and Japan on Friday. Industry sources are pegging the offshore opening at anywhere from $325M-$350M with some seeing it at $360M.