Frozen 2 rakes in $350 million worldwide on box office debut

Frozen 2 raked in $350 million (nearly £272m) in its opening weekend worldwide, beating forecasts and the box office debut of the original film.

The sequel made about £15m in the UK and Ireland and $127m (£98.9m) in the US and Canada, which are not counted towards the worldwide figures.

The 2013 original took $93m (£72.28m) during its first five days in theatres, according to Reuters.

It ended up making a whopping $1.27bn in total.

Disney say the sequel has set a new record for the biggest opening weekend for an animation.

That's owing to the fact they consider this year's remake of The Lion King, which made $269m on its opening weekend, to be a live action film.

Disney declined to enter the film in the category for best animated feature at next year's Oscars.

But some feel the digital 3D film is more of a photo-realistic animation.

• The Lion King hits $1bn box office mark

• Frozen 2: Heartwarming or 'dire case of sequelitis'?

• Frozen biggest animation of all time

Jennifer Lee, chief creative officer of the Walt Disney Animation Studios, said: "If Frozen was happily ever after then Frozen 2 is the day after happily ever after.

"Life gets in the way. It throws you curve balls. So, this is about learning to fight for your place in the world, do what's right - all of the grown-up things you have to do."

She added: "There's still fun and humour, but it's a deeply emotional story about finding out who we are meant to be."

The original Frozen, which centres around the relationship of princess Elsa and her sister Anna, made box office history by becoming the top-grossing animated film.

The sequel topped the North American domestic rankings list this weekend, according to Comscore, with Ford versus Ferrari (known as Le Mans '66 in the UK) collecting $16m (£12.4m) in a distant second, and Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood taking $13.5m (£10.5m) in third place.

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [e-mail].