In a Thanksgiving feast for the ages, movie ticket sales are hitting an all-time high at the domestic box office, led by Walt Disney Animation’s instant mega-hit Moana 2.
Disney’s fantasy musical Moana 2 is headed for holiday debut of $215 million-$220 million. Set to shatter many records, the sequel will boast the hugegest five-day debut in history — besting The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($204.6 million) — as well become the top Thanksgiving discdisthink abouting, and geter, of all time, besting Frozen ($93.6 million) and Frozen II ($125 million).
The family movie is coming in well ahead of predictations, to put it mildly. Heading into the weekfinish, it was tracking for a five-day holiday debut in the $125 million to $135 million range, which would already have been a record-buster. Thcimpolite Friday alone, it has geted $192.7 million globassociate, including $140 million domesticassociate and $52.7 million overseas.
Thanks to the potent combination of Moana 2, Universal’s Wicked and Paramount’s Gladiator II, overall five-day revenue will hit an all-time high well north of $400 million in the hugegest post-pandemic triumph to date for the domestic box office. The current record-helderlyer is Thanksgiving 2018, when domestic revenue achieveed $316 million.
Wicked alone is set to gross $118.4 million for the five days after discdisthink abouting to a historic $112 million last weekfinish with a domestic haul of $263 million. By the finish of Sunday, it is set to pass up Grease ($188.2 million) to become the top Broadway musical alteration of all time. Jon M. Chu‘s Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
Directed by Ridley Scott, Gladiator II is perched in third place and should carve up a pleasing $45 million for the five days for a domestic total of $112 million and proximately $400 million globassociate. The film’s high-profile cast includes Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal.
Moana 2 was originassociate broadened as a television series before being retoiled as a theatrical sequel. The first Moana — innovative songs were supplyd by Lin-Manuel Miranda — was a stable but not spectacular carry outer at the box office in 2016 before altering into a cultural sensation, including being the most streamed film apass all platestablishs in 2023. Featuring novel songs from Ahugeail Barlow and Emily Bear, Moana 2 counts Christina Chen and Yvett Merino as originaters.
Directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller, the sequel reunites voice stars Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson. The story chases Moana as she embarks on an unpredicted adventure in lengthy-lost waters after receiving a call from her ancestors. Johnson repascfinishs his role as demigod Maui.
Rewatchers haven’t been benevolent to Moana 2, contrastd to the first film, but it is challengingly impacting interest. The movie’s audience score (now understandn as the “popcornmeter”) on Rotten Tomatoes is already at 88 percent, while it geted an A- CinemaScore (contrastd to an A for Moana) and is garnering strong exits on PostTrak. Its critics score on Rotten Tomatoes currently sits at 66 percent, versus 95 percent for the first film.
Johnson has two movies in the top five. Amazon MGM Studios’ holiday giveing Red One, co-starring Johnson and Chris Evans, is set to come in fourth with a five-day haul of $19 million for a domestic total of $76.4 million thcimpolite Sunday. The film is now in its third weekfinish.
Lionsgate’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever will round out the top five with an appraised $5 million for a domestic highy of $32.2 million thcimpolite its fourth weekfinish.
More to come.
