Freakier Friday has been a moderate box office success for Disney, pulling in over $43.8 million since its release on August 8. Given its prime summer release date and ongoing compeтιтion with movies like The Naked Gun and The Bad Guys 2, this is a very impressive performance. Freakier Friday’s commercial success can only be a good sign for more original movie sequels at Disney.
Although the Freakier Friday ending doesn’t explicitly tease a sequel, there’s every chance that another installment could be on the cards if the movie turns over a considerable profit. While this would certainly be exciting, the even more tantalizing prospect is that Freakier Friday triggers a trend of other Disney original movies getting legacy sequels.
Disney Needs To Make Princess Diaries 3 Next
After the huge success of Freakier Friday, it seems only logical that Disney should start looking for their next early 2000s original property to bring back for another spin. If the studio does continue with this trend, The Princess Diaries seems like the most likely (and profitable) candidate. The most recent sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, was released in 2004.
As Freakier Friday has already proven, it’s been the perfect amount of time for audiences to have developed nostalgia for the original property without letting it feel old or outdated. Anne Hathaway is just as popular today as she was two decades ago, and there’s no doubt she’d be able to get audiences to come out in droves for a new Princess Diaries sequel.
Incidentally, Princess Diaries 3 was confirmed back in 2022, but there’s been very little development on the project since then. It’s possible that Disney has shelved the sequel in order to make room for more mainstream projects; neither Julie Andrews nor Chris Pine have seemingly been approached to help get the project off the ground.
Thankfully, Freakier Friday gives Disney the perfect excuse to finally get Princess Diaries 3 into development. The studio now has definitive proof that early 2000s reboots can be commercial successes, and The Princess Diaries was always just as popular as Freaky Friday. The original film grossed $165 million upon release, compared with Freaky Friday’s $160 million.
Not to mention, Hathaway’s career has been on an upwards trajectory ever since The Princess Diaries was first released. She’s starred in several huge blockbusters and acclaimed indie movies, even securing a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in Les Misérables. Her upcoming work on The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Verity next year makes this the perfect opportunity to capitalize on her popularity.
