Brief:

• "Frozen 2" boosted customer engagement 95% for Disney on the movie's Nov. 22 opening day, per search data experience management company Bloomreach shared with Mobile Marketer. The firm also observed a 6% gain the following day and a 400% lift in sales from a year earlier.
• Disney's Oct. 4 announcement of Frozen Fan Fest, which offered a first look at merchandise inspired by the hit animated movies, caused online searches for related products and topics to jump about 1,200% from the prior month. The most popular merchandise included bedsheets, cardigans, T-shirts, tabletop sets, bikes, backpacks and pajamas, per Bloomreach.
• Positive social media buzz for "Frozen 2" declined after its opening weekend, data by Sprout Social shows. The percentage of positive tweets fell to 21% during the Nov. 22-24 opening weekend from 29% on Nov. 17-20, before the movie premiered. Negative tweets rose to 40% from 31% during the comparable periods. The number of tweets about "Frozen 2" jumped to more than 1.4 million during opening weekend from 284,000 earlier in the week.

Insight:

Social media has become essential in marketing films to younger audiences who gravitate to digital platforms. Last month, Disney promoted "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" with its first virtual makeup try-on experience on YouTube to reach a slightly older demographic than the audience for "Frozen 2." Teens spend 37% of their daily video consumption on YouTube, just ahead of the 35% they spend viewing Netflix, Piper Jaffray found in its recent "Taking Stock With Teens" survey.

Disney released "Frozen 2" on the weekend before Thanksgiving, marking a shift from past years when it premiered animated features such as "Moana," "Coco" and "Ralph Breaks the Internet" during the holiday, Variety reported. Thanksgiving arrives later this year, giving marketers a smaller window to hit their sales goals in the lead-up to Christmas. By releasing the movie a week earlier than in previous years, Disney has a longer period to market the film and snap up merchandise sales as families look for kid-friendly entertainment and holiday gifts.

"Frozen 2" generated $127 million in box office sales, making it the third-biggest opening for an animated movie after "Incredibles 2" and "Finding Dory." The movie's results align with analyst expectations of $100 million to $400 million, CNBC reported. Rising negative sentiment on Twitter after the opening weekend doesn't necessarily signal that "Frozen 2" will fade going into the holiday weekend, as the sequel's box-office draw was bigger than the $93 million for the first "Frozen" film six years ago.