Disney executives revealed that a Broadway musical based on highly-popular animated movie Frozen is in the works.
Frozen, which stars Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, has grossed $669 million at the worldwide box office and now movie bosses are hoping to capitalize on the surprise success of the film with a Broadway show.
A Broadway musical based on highly-popular animated movie Frozen is in the works
Disney CEO Bob Iger told Fortune.com: “This is for something bigger and longer … We’re not demanding speed. We’re demanding excellence.”
[youtube -WdC4DaYIeQ 650]
Frozen has returned to the top of the North American box office in its seventh week of release, according to early estimates.
The Disney animation knocked The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug off the top spot and into third place.
It is unusual for a film to go back to number one seven weeks after its release.
The last film to do so, according to box office tracker Rentrak, was The Passion of the Christ in 2004.
Frozen took $20.7 million over the weekend.
The next biggest film on the chart was horror offering, Paranormal Activity: The Marked One, which debuted at number two with $18.2 million.
Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, a possible Oscar contender, was at four.
Another awards hopeful, David O Russell’s crime caper American Hustle, rounded out the top five.
Frozen, which is very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, has now made more than $600 million worldwide.
That makes it the second-biggest Disney animation release after The Lion King.
Frozen has returned to the top of the North American box office in its seventh week of release
Kristen Bell voices the main character in Frozen, which was created by the same team behind 2010 Disney animation Tangled.
Frozen follows the relationship of Queen Elsa and her sister Princess Anna, who battles to save their kingdom when Elsa’s involuntary magical powers threaten to destroy it.
The freezing temperatures currently being experienced in some regions of North America are thought to have had some effect on box office takings.
Meanwhile, Stephen Frears’ Philomena saw its North American total gross creep up to about $20 million this weekend.
In its seventh weekend, Philomena took in $1.6 million from 607 locations. The film, starring Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, has enjoyed one of the strongest showings for an arthouse film released in 2013.
North American box office Top 5:
1. Frozen – $20.7 million
2. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones – $18.2 million
3. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – $16.3 million
4. The Wolf of Wall Street – $13.4 million
5. American Hustle – $13.2 million
Source: Hollywood.com
[youtube FLzfXQSPBOg 650]
Star Wars Episode VII release date will be December 18, 2015, the Walt Disney Company has announced.
Disney bought Lucasfilm, the company behind Star Wars, from creator George Lucas last year for $4 billion.
It has committed to making at least three new films in the series, one of the most successful franchises ever.
Disney announced the release date as it reported a better-than-expected 12% jump in net profit for the three months to 28 September.
It made a net profit of $1.39 billion during the quarter, up from $1.24 billion during the same period last year.
Star Wars Episode VII release date will be December 18, 2015
The company also reported that its net income for the financial year to September 28 jumped 8% from a year ago to $6.1 billion.
“We’re extremely pleased with our results for Fiscal 2013, delivering record revenue, net income and earnings per share for the third year in a row,” Robert Iger, chief executive of the firm, said in a statement.
Disney’s movie studio business saw a 7% jump in revenues during the fourth quarter.
Revenues rose to $1.5 billion during the period, helped mainly by the strong performance of Monsters University, which Disney said “partially offset” the weak showing of The Lone Ranger.
However, operating income at Disney’s cable network unit, which includes the ESPN sports channel, fell by 7% to $1.3 billion in the last quarter, which the firm said was due to the timing of some ESPN affiliate fee revenues.
[youtube 8hsxj0eTkW0 650]
