Walt Disney Animation’s “Moana 2” continued on its record-shattering path, earning a massive $28 million on Thanksgiving, while lifting the fortunes of a movie business that hasn’t had much to celebrate in recent years.
The animated sequel is on track to gross at least $175 million over the five-day holiday week, blowing past the previous high-water marks set by 2019’s “Frozen II” ($125 million) and 2013’s “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” ($109 million). Rival studios believe the film will climb even higher, ending its first five days in theaters with more than $200 million domestically. Currently, “Moana 2” has earned $85.5 million stateside. It has already set a new record for a top-grossing Thanksgiving release, eclipsing the $15 million that “Frozen 2” grossed five years ago.
And “Moana 2” isn’t the only movie that’s fueling a box office resurgence. Universal’s “Wicked” and Paramount’s “Gladiator II,” both of which opened last weekend, are continuing to draw crowds, earning $16.9 million and $6.7 million on Thanksgiving. “Wicked,” an adaptation of a popular Broadway musical, is projected to gross $105.6 million over the five-day holiday, while “Gladiator II,” a long-gestating sequel to an action epic released during the Clinton administration, will pull in an estimated $45 million over the same period. Both films were expensive to produce, so they need to keep attracting large audiences. “Wicked,” is the first installment in a two-part saga, and it cost $300 million to make both films, while “Gladiator II,” which suffered a prolonged shutdown due to 2023’s actors strike, has a budget of $250 million. Add in marketing costs, which typically run more than $100 million for films of this size, and you have two studios that are putting an awful lot of money on the line. By the end of the holiday, “Gladiator II” will have generated $112.2 million domestically, while “Wicked” should have racked up $250.6 million in North America.
Originally, “Moana 2” wasn’t supposed to sail into movie theaters. The family film was conceived as a Disney+ series before it was reimagined as a feature movie. Released in 2016, the original “Moana” performed solidly at the box office, earning $687.2 million globally. But Disney’s confidence that audiences would turn out for a follow-up had more to do with how the movie was embraced on streaming, where it became one of the company’s most-viewed films.
For theaters, the confluence of big-budget blockbusters couldn’t come at a better time. The exhibition industry was hobbled by the COVID pandemic, which shuttered cinemas for months and left certain consumers more reticent to return to their local multiplexes even as restrictions eased. Then, last year’s Hollywood strikes, which also saw screenwriters hit the picket lines alongside performers, ground production to a standstill, leaving studios with fewer movies to put in theaters. Exhibitors hope that these huge Thanksgiving grosses will begin an extended rebound.
But the winter holidays don’t look like they will be as robust. In December, Paramount will release “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and Disney will offer up “Mufasa: The Lion King,” but there’s not another “Avatar” or a major Marvel movie to truly put theaters in a festive frame of mind.
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