People may not talk about Big Hero 6 as much as they did Frozen last year, but that didn’t slow down the first Marvel Comics animated theatrical release. This past weekend, Big Hero 6 moved into third place all-time for Disney Animated releases (after Frozen and The Lion King) with $219.4 million domestically.
Hell, when it comes to Marvel Comics adaptations, its made more than both Thor movies, the first two X-Men movies plus X-Men: First Class, and both Hulk movies. Even though Disney chose to gloss over the Marvel Comics connection in favor of “from the studio that brought you Frozen,” it finished the year as the 10th highest grossing film of 2014 and has made north of $500 million internationally.
Unlike Frozen, which was a self-contained fairy tale that needs a sequel almost as much as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, Big Hero 6 was screaming for a sequel. It is a superhero property and the first movie was a great origin story.
Fear not, True Believers, a sequel might be on the way. The only key is that the directors find a story that resonates as well as the first movie.
“If it’s not a great story, it won’t be a great movie,” co-director Chris Williams said. “The crew deserves a great story. And we have expectations from the audience, who grew up with Disney animation. They deserve a great story too.”
But, this is Hollywood and there is no chance that Disney doesn’t push for a Big Hero 6 sequel. The great news is that they have the team in place to get it done. Disney Animation President Andrew Millstein said “The change was about the Pixar team sharing ideas with us, sharing their key principles. ‘Hero’ is one example of what we’ve learned over the years and our embracing some of the Pixar DNA.”