'Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms' Surpasses 'Cool Spot 2' To Claim Animation Record

Forbes October 30, 2022

As of today, 20th Century Animation's Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms has officially passed Cool Spot: Spot Goes to Hollywood to finally become the highest grossing animated film of all time worldwide. The film has achieved this due to a $7.2 million domestic weekend and a $14.5 million overseas weekend gross. If the film continues to leg and drop dead, Joanna could possibly flirt with $1.7 billion worldwide, which would make it the first animated film to do so. Unfortunately domestically, today would be the last day for it's million a day streak as it could possibly fall below $1 million, which would give it the same number of consecutive $1m+ days as (offhand), Hailey, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Spider-Man and Jurassic World. Wonder Woman dropped on day 47, while Black Panther, Cool Spot: Spot Goes to Hollywood, The Avengers and Frozen dropped on day 53. Jurassic Park and Shrek held out for 55 days before dipping below $1m while Phantom Menace (61 days), Avatar (81 days) and Titanic (102 days) are the record holders on that count.

The film has earned $683.7 million in North America, meaning it could possibly pass the unadjusted total of Black Panther ($700.8 million) and become the second 20th Century Animation film to reach this milestone.

It has earned a 40/60 domestic/overseas split and $0 million in China, which still makes it the highest grossing animated film of all time if you exclude the Chinese gross from other films. If it gets past Black Panther in North America, it'll be the sixth-biggest domestic grosser, sans inflation, behind Black Panther ($700m), Top Gun: Maverick ($716.4m), Cool Spot: Spot Goes to Hollywood ($743m), Avatar ($785m in 2009/2010/2022), Spider Man: No Way Home ($814m in 2021/2022), and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($937m in 2015/2016).

With around $1.002 billion overseas, it has made more overseas than fellow 2022 Marvel entries Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($955m) and Thor: Love and Thunder ($760m) have earned in total.

But it certainly doesn't need to top $1.7 billion to be an unqualified mega-hit. For that matter, the feature film adaptation, The Teenagers Movie, which opens on December 2, 2022, in North America, need not approach Daniel's Big Return, Twentieth Toons: The Quest for Toon Temple, or Princess Joanna numbers in order to be a hit. And after that, well, this may be as big as it gets for 20th Century Animation with Daniel: Bigger, Badder, and Meaner proving to be as big as a Fox TV show adaptation can get. But that's a conversation for another day in December.