'Big Hero Six' Is No 'Frozen' (And That's OK) 

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I live in Los Angeles and I\'m lucky enough to write about the thing I love most: movies. I\'m a graduate of Vassar College and Northwestern University and I\'ve been working at Forbes since 2001. For a good chunk of the year I obsess over celebrity paydays for the Celebrity 100 list. The rest of the year I\'m working the beat. If I\'m not behind my computer or out on an interview you can find me at the beach with my two kids ... or at the movies. Follow me on Twitter DorothyAtForbes.

\'Big Hero Six\' Is No \'Frozen\' (And That\'s OK)

My colleague, Scott Mendelson, wrote a story this week asking us not to compare

at the box office. Both films open this weekend. Both will likely earn plenty of money. But in Mendelson’s tongue-in-cheek words: “whichever film comes in second place over the weekend will be summarily executed on Monday morning as punishment for its unpardonable failure.”

I would like to add to his plea by asking that we not compare

mania. If you think every other little girl was dressed as Elsa or Anna from

this Halloween, you’re not wrong. Disney’s consumer products division says it has sold more than 3 million

princess dresses. (According to Panjiva, a global trade research company, retailers are stocking their shelves with 46% more Elsa dresses than Anna costumes.) It’s been almost a full year since the film hit theaters and the passion for

has hardly thawed at all. “Let it Go,” the unofficial theme song from

, has gone quadruple platinum, meaning it’s sold more than 4 million copies in the U.S. alone. The movie is the top-grossing animated film of all time at the box office with $1.2 billion in global ticket sales. Elsa and Anna are already wandering Disney parks (to the delight of  little visitors) and a stage show and an ice show are both in the works.

don’t come along very often — everyone knows that. But for better or worse, everyone will be comparing

is tracking to earn about $55 million this weekend. That might seem like a big drop from

earned $49 million opening weekend and went on to bring in a healthy $471 million at the global box office.

was a musical that fell pretty squarely into the Disney Princess mold, it just did princess better than many older movies. It stood out for its great story and wonderful music but at heart, it was a pretty traditional princess film with a heroine who has lost her parents and has to discover some kind of truth (in this case that love is all powerful) in order for everything to turn out OK in the end.

is a superhero movie, something we haven’t seen much of from Disney animation. The Mouse House is hitting it out of the park with live action superheroes thanks to the Marvel movies. But you have to go back to 2004 to find an animated superhero movie –

. That film grossed $631 million but it was a very non-traditional superhero movie because for most of the characters, their best superhero days were behind them.

may spawn a sequel, it’s hard to see what was left out of that story.

, on the other hand, is clearly designed as an origin story that can spin off a franchise just like

. The characters actually originated in a Marvel comic book (thought the movie puts a decidedly kid-friendly spin on the Marvel story).

‘s standard’s, it could create a franchise worth billions.

is getting good reviews, it earns a 93 out of 100 rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As much as little boys enjoyed

more (at least according to an informal survey of the 7-year-old boy in my house who now insists that he didn’t like

merchandise as I can buy for him please). And to be a financial success, the film doesn’t have to earn

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