Despite direct competition from Disney Animation’s Wish this weekend, Universal’s holdover hit Trolls Band Together delivered a strong hold at the global box office. The movie opened in overseas markets a couple of weeks prior to its stateside debut, and is now available on PVOD platforms in some regions. Trolls Band Together grossed an estimated $25 million domestically across the five-day extended Thanksgiving frame. The animated three-quel nearly matched Wish’s debut haul at the domestic box office, as the latest Disney offering pulled in $31.7 million domestically.

Trolls Band Together has now reached just under $65 million at the domestic box office. The movie has also generated $81 million from overseas markets, for a cumulative global haul of $145 million, and should pass the $150 million mark in a couple of days, if not sooner. It remains to be seen how the movie fare again the first Trolls film at the global box office when all is said and done.

Trolls Band Together marked DreamWorks Animation’s biggest debut since 2019’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. In the last few years, the once-unbeatable animation house has significantly reduced spending, choosing instead to focus on mid-budget projects with a bigger margin for profits. For instance, its last two hits — Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and The Bad Guys — were both produced on budgets of between $80 million and $110 million, which is roughly half of what DreamWorks would spend on animated movies of this scale a decade ago.

How Does ‘Trolls Band Together’ Compare to the First Two Movies in the Franchise?

Each film in the Trolls franchise, which has expanded in recent years into TV specials, streaming series, and shorts, has received mostly positive reviews. But Trolls Band Together is the lowest-rated film of the trilogy, according to the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The movie currently sits at a 61% “fresh” approval rating, as compared to the second film’s 71% score and the first film’s 75% score.

Financially, the three-quel is also trailing the franchise opener. Pixar’s Elemental, for example, cost a reported $200 million to produce, and delivered one of the worst openings in the banner’s history before clawing its way back thanks to a lack of competition. The movie ultimately generated nearly $500 million worldwide, but the year’s biggest animated hit remains Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which grossed over $1.35 billion globally. By comparison, the first Trolls movie, released in 2016 by 20th Century Studios, grossed a little over $350 million. The second film, Trolls: World Tour, was released bang in the middle of the first lockdown during the pandemic, and registered negligible box office numbers.

Trolls Band Together features the voices of Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake, who are joined by returning cast members Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Icona Pop, Ron Funches, Kenan Thompson, and Kunal Nayyar. The film is directed by Walt Dohrn, who also directed the second installment. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Trolls Band Together

Poppy discovers that Branch was once part of the boy band ‘BroZone’ with his brothers, Floyd, John Dory, Spruce and Clay. When Floyd is kidnapped, Branch and Poppy embark on a journey to reunite his two other brothers and rescue Floyd.

Release Date

November 17, 2023

Director

Walt Dohrn, Tim Heitz

Cast

Anna Kendrick, Zooey Deschanel, Troye Sivan, Daveed Diggs, Justin Timberlake, Christopher Mintz-Plasse