Box Office: Royal gross for ‘Princess,’ but what does it mean?

Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” — the studio’s first hand-drawn animation in five years and its first featuring an African-American princess — averaged a whopping $356,000 over the three-day weekend from a pair of engagements at the Ziegfeld in Manhattan and a large theater on the Disney lot in Burbank. But do the numbers for this “event” really augur, if anything, when the ‘toon goes into wide release on Dec. 11? Remember that Disney is charging an enormous $50 top  for the limited engagement, with a smaller number of seats going for $30 and some group sales at $20 a ticket, for a package that includes something called “The Disney Experience,” locally at Roseland. Disney has often had exclusive engagements with live shows at advanced prices at huge venues like the 3,000-seat Ziegfeld. Indeed the highest-ever per-venue averages were scored by mega-hit “The Lion King” (at the 5000-seat Radio City Music Hall) 15 years ago and “Pocahontas” 14 years ago, when $15 was pricey for a reserved-seat film engagement. “The Princess and the Frog” ranks No. 3 on the list, ahead of Pixar’s “Toy Story 2” and “A Bug’s Life,” as well as a trio of Disney ‘toons that eventually under-performed in wide release: “Hercules,” “Atlantis: The Lost Continent” and “Brother Bear.” The only non-animated film in the top 10 is “Dreamgirls,” followed by Fox’s animated disappointment, “Anastasia.” So based on history, we really won’t know how “The Princess and the Frog” is going to do until next month.