Frozen II skated to an immense $350 million global debut logging another win In Disney’s fairy tale 2019. That number makes it the biggest animated day and date release in history worldwide. Just in the US and Canada it earned $120 million and set a November animated release record, while overseas receipts came out to $220 million. In every single one of its 37 global territories, FII opened in the first place. Chinese plays grossed an all-time $53 million launch for Disney Animation in that country. In the UK and France, this weekend’s openings were worth $17.2 and $13.4 million. Each of these is a new record launch for any animated feature. South Korea was worth $31.5 million, the third-best ever start for any Hollywood film. In Japan, where the original stayed on top of the charts for 16 weeks and earned an immense $249 million this week’s world box office champion started with $18.2 million. Looks like this film has every intention of becoming Disney’s seventh billion-plus dollar movie of the year and will start winding down its run just as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker begins its inevitable march towards nine figures on December 20.

The only counterprogramming to enter the domestic market was Sony’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood which opened in third place with $13.5 million. Four-time Globe winner Tom Hanks plays Fred Rogers (to whom the actor recently discovered he was a distant cousin) of the PBS program Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. The plot is based on an article about the deep friendship that formed between Rogers and Esquire journalist Lloyd Vogel when the latter was sent to Pittsburgh to do a profile on America’s favorite children’s television host. Matthew Rhys plays Vogel while Susan Kelechi Watson plays his wife and Chris Cooper plays his father, all of whom are moved by Mr. Rogers’s presence in their lives. International plays start next week in Spain, Brazil, Indonesia, Argentina, and Belgium.

Mr. Rogers may have touched the lives of two whole generations of American children, but he couldn’t touch these weekends’ number two finisher Ford v Ferrari. Fox’s Le Mans racing story went into second place after its second frame, taking a 49% drop for a $16 million sophomore showing. The film made another $14.7 million and reached global cumulative earnings of $103.78 million. Russia is its biggest overseas market so far with $6.8 million. The UK is the next most lucrative territory for the film at $5.3 million, with France after that at $4.7 million.

The Joker meanwhile continues to shatter expectations. It earned $10.3 million worldwide this weekend, and its $1.035 billion lifetime gross in pushing up against Aladdin’s $1.050 billion and inching towards Toy Story 4’s $1.073 billion. That number may be the only thing saving the rest of the film industry from a Disney remake and sequel sweep of the top eight places worldwide this year.

Next week will be fairly empty of major releases as distributors look to steer clear of Frozen II. Dark comedy Knives Out is the only wide release scheduled to begin the next frame. 

See the latest world box office estimates: