Frozen 2 has flown to the top of the box office in its opening weekend, earning $9.727m across 768 screens. The sequel to the 2013 Disney animated blockbuster was up 59% on its predecessor’s opening weekend and figures provided by Val Morgan show that 587,121 people saw the film across the weekend.

The launch of Frozen 2 is the biggest debut for an animated film in Australia for 2019, the sixth-highest opening of the year and sixth-highest animated family film of all time.

Frozen easily outstripped fellow debutant, Knives Out, which opened to $2.18m from 276 screens. The murder mystery film stars an ensemble cast including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer.

However, the pair easily ended the hold of previous box office rulers, Ford V Ferrari and Last Christmas, on the top of the charts.

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Ford V Ferrari was down 39% from the previous weekend, with an income of $1.19m from 347 screens. Romantic comedy, Last Christmas, drew $789,365 from 271 screens. Its running total is currently at $7.7m.

Joker has remained in the top 10 after nine weekends at the box office. After showing on 165 screens, the Joaquin Pheonix fronted thriller earned $249,641 from 165 screens, bumping its Australian running total to $39m.

Charlies Angels, the remake of the 1970s TV show starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska, walked away from its third weekend with $524,606 from 314 screens.