Disney Pixar’s “Coco” earned $2.3 million at the Tuesday box office.
The preview numbers for “Coco” compare well to those for “Moana” ($2.6 million), “The Good Dinosaur” ($1.3 million) and “Frozen” ($1.2 million).
Coco,” which has already become Mexico’s highest grossing film of all time with more than $43 million grossed since its release at the end of October, is projected to have a five-day opening of $55-60 million. By comparison, Pixar’s last Thanksgiving release, “The Good Dinosaur,” had a five-day start of $55.4 million in 2015 and a $123 million run, while Disney’s “Moana” had a five-day opening of $82 million last year en route to a $248.7 million domestic cume.
Audience hype around “Coco” hasn’t been very big, but critics have been raving about the film’s emotional depth and commitment to its faithful depiction of Mexican culture, giving it a 95 percent “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Coco” follows a 12-year-old boy named Miguel, whose yearning to escape his family’s ban on playing music leads him on a voyage to the Land of the Dead. The film stars Anthony Gonzalez, Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renee Victor and Alanna Ubach. Adrian Molina directed the film with Lee Unkrich (“Toy Story 3”) and co-wrote the script with Matthew Aldrich.
Also opening this holiday weekend are “Darkest Hour,” “The Man Who Invented Christmas,” “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” and “Call Me by Your Name.”
“Justice League,” which was released last week, will enter Thanksgiving weekend trying to avoid the heavy second weekend drop-off suffered by “Batman v Superman.” That film had an opening of $166 million, the second highest of 2016 behind only “Captain America: Civil War” ($179.1 million). But after poor word of mouth spread from early audiences, second weekend totals dropped 69 percent to $51 million.
While “Justice League” holds a score of 41 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, 84 percent of the audience liked it, according to the site, which might decrease its second week drop-off percentage.