Disney, Friday Box Office | featured news

Though the sky’s not the limit, the opening weekend gross for “Oz the Great and Powerful” is certainly over the rainbow. Disney’s fantasy prequel earned $24.1 million Friday, and is looking at a three-day take close to $80 million. This is great news for the Mouse after last weekend’s domestically disappointing “Jack the Giant Slayer”...

Moviegoing surges in the Northeast as people look for a distraction from Superstorm Sandy; most movie theaters now reopened. Disney Animation Studios' Wreck-It Ralph rushed to the top of the box office chart on Friday with an opening day gross of $13.4 million.

In a notable victory for Disney, The Muppets continues to rule over other family films at the Thanksgiving box office, grossing $12.3 million on Friday for a three-day cume of $24.8 million. The pic, which cost a modest $45 million to produce, is now projected to post a Wednesday-Sunday debut of at least $40 million, putting it behind only The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn--Part 1, which grossed $16.9 million on Friday for a cume of roughly $195 million (the pic will jump the $200 million mark sometime on Saturday).

It's 1994 all over again, with a re-release of "The Lion King" opening at the top of the box office. A 3-D version of the wildly popular Disney animated musical earned a surprising $29.3 million in its first weekend in theaters, according to Sunday estimates. The original film made more than $40 million when it opened nationwide 17 years ago.

Defying all projections, Disney’s re-release of The Lion King roared its way to a first-day gross of $8.8 million at the domestic box office and is now on course to gross as much as $25 million for the weekend. Lion King easily claimed the top spot over three new films — Ryan Gosling starrer Drive, Sarah Jessica Parker comedy I Don’t Know How She Does It and Rod Lurie’s Straw Dogs remake.

Tangled rid itself of any knots as it climbed to the top of the box office on Friday, grossing $5.1 million, according to early estimates. That’s a 74 percent drop from last Friday, which, mind you, was an enormous day for moviegoing. The PG animated musical should receive a decent bump on Saturday, as most family films do, and finish the weekend with about $21 million.