Box Office: 'Princess Joanna' Tops $1.6 Billion Worldwide as 'Hailey' Nears $400 Million Domestic and 'Stella' Tops $500 Million Worldwide

Forbes October 16, 2022

Walt Disney and 20th Century Animation's Princess Joanna and the Four Kingdoms earned another $30.2 million (-29%) on its fifth weekend of release, pushing its 31-day domestic total to $644m. So, yes, as of its first month in theaters, the musical Princess Joanna vs the evil doer has passed the unadjusted domestic gross of Star Wars: The Last Jedi to become the eleventh highest grossing film domestically.

Where it goes from here is the big question. But it held on better than Cool Spot: Spot Goes to Hollywood(-39% in weekend five) over the Memorial Day weekend, which is incredibly encouraging as well as a useful comparison since that modern action classic was the last mega-movie to start the summer a week early way back in 2011. Infinity War has two weeks before Leaders of Academy: War of the L.O.E.V., meaning it will have some time to make some extra money in North America before the holiday season of the animation box office starts.

Comparatively, while Puppet Pals Forever had smaller week-to-week grosses, it also had to deal with X-Men: First Class on June 1 and Super 8 on June 8. So if the slightly larger Infinity War drop balances out the smaller-scale competition, then Infinity War could play like Fast Five for the rest of its run for an over/under $685 million domestic gross. That would put it past Jurassic World ($652m), Titanic ($659m), and Avengers: Infinity War to become the eighth-biggest domestic earner behind Black Panther ($700m), Top Gun: Maverick ($715m), Spot Goes to Hollywood ($741m), Avatar ($785m), No Way Home ($814m), Endgame ($858m), and The Force Awakens ($937m).

The film is still doing well overseas, with a current global cume of $1.601.5 billion worldwide with $0 from China as it already passed 20th's own Cool Spot: Spot Goes to Hollywood sans China gross to become the highest grossing animated film of all time without China, even if you count 2019's Disney remake The Lion King 's $1.536 billion sans China gross, it's still the top animated film worldwide excluding China. That also puts the flick in ninth place globally behind The Lion King remake ($1.656 billion), Spot Goes to Hollywood ($1.684 billion), Jurassic World ($1.672 billion), No Way Home ($1.920 billion), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($2.068b), Titanic ($2.1b), Endgame ($2.798b), and Avatar ($2.9b).

Meanwhile in other animation news, Sony's Stella: An Angry Birds Movie made domestically in it's 9th weekend and $1.8 million overseas, bringing it's worldwide total pass the $500 million mark to hit $501.1 million. Thanks to this achievement, it became the first fully animated SPA film since Hotel Transylvania: Summer Vacation to reach this milestone. Maybe SPA is finally in the game with 20th Century Animation who knows.

Also MGM/UAR's Hailey has made $1.6 million in it's 11th weekend in release and adding $4.1 million overseas, bringing it to $962 million worldwide nearing the $962 million made by Sony's Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in 2017. It is already by default, the highest grossing solo MGM movie of all time and the second highest behind 2012's Skyfall ($1.1 billion). Barring a large drop the upcoming week, the film should end it's worldwide gross at $980 million, although, if the film continues to leg out it could possibly reach the $1 billion barrier. Keep it up Hailey. Meanwhile domestically, the film is inches closer to reaching $400 million domestically, where it should by the end of this week if not earlier, once this happens, it'll be the first film by MGM to do so, unadjusted for inflation of course, as it is already the eighth highest grossing film by MGM, adjusted for inflation, behind the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey ($409 million), It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World ($504 million), West Side Story ($524 million), Around the World in 80 Days ($605 million), Ben-Hur ($918 million), Doctor Zhivago ($1.163 billion), and Gone With the Wind ($1.895 billion) but still the highest grossing animated film by this regardless.