Even though Disney's animators had wrestled with braids for 2011's Tangled, the hair for Elsa was vastly more complicated: While Rapunzel carried 27,000 extralong strands on her head, the Frozen team found themselves dealing with upward of 400,000 CG threads -- a feat that required the invention of a new program, called Tonic, to execute.
TOKYO — The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opened in fourth place on Japan’s weekend box-office chart with $4.1 million (?420 million), while Frozen continued its stellar run here with another $7.2 million (?736 million) on Saturday and Sunday to take its total to $118 million (?12.1 billion).
Frozen lost the number one spot last weekend to the latest installment of local anime series Detective Conan but held on to the weekly crown. It returned to the top of the rankings following the release of the 3D dubbed Japanese version on Friday.
Disney’s global megahit has racked up 9.75 million admissions in Japan, boosted by repeaters, many of them watching both the English and Japanese versions. With the so-called Golden Week holidays now starting here, Frozen is well on course to become the first film in Japan to hit 10 million admissions since Hayao Miyazaki‘s Ponyo on a Cliff in 2008. It has overtaken Finding Nemo as the highest-earning Hollywood animation release in Japan.
Thermae Romae II, a follow-up to the $60 million time-travel box-office hit from 2012, took $4.8 million (?491 million) and the third spot thanks to 365,356 admissions at 434 screens this weekend.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 bowed on 761 screens and pulled in 273,000 admissions for the weekend. It should also benefit from the Golden Week holidays. It is due to open in the U.S. on May 2.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier dropped to eighth place after a solid start last week.
Twitter: @GavinJBlair
