Frozen II, the sequel to the highest-grossing animated film of all time, has secured a day-and-date China release set for November 22. A new Chinese one-sheet was posted on Disney’s official Weibo account today (check it out below). The studio begins offshore rollout on November 20 with domestic, and now China, starting two days later. Some further markets go through the rest of that month and into December.
Animation doesn’t always catch fire in the Middle Kingdom, although local pic Ne Zha made over $700M there this year and other titles like Disney’s Zootopia and Pixar’s Coco have been exceptions. China was the No. 5 offshore market on the original Frozen, skating to $48.2M (unadjusted). The four markets ahead of it were Japan, Korea, the UK and Germany.
Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee direct Frozen 2 with Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff and Josh Gad voicing the main cast, returning after the triumphant original earned Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Original Song “Let It Go.” Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez are back to provide the music. Peter Del Vecho is producer.
In the original film, Queen Elsa feared her powers were too much for the world. In the sequel, she must hope they are enough as the answer to why she was born with those powers is calling her — and threatening her kingdom. In the June trailer, Ciaran Hinds’ Grand Pabbie tells Elsa, “The past is not what it seems. You must find the truth. Go north across the enchanted lands and into the unknown. But be careful…” Together with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven, they set out on a dangerous but remarkable journey.
When it was released in February, the first teaser became the most-watched ever for an animated film with 116.4M views in the first 24 hours.