Incoming Thanksgiving Tidal Wave At The Box Office: ‘Moana 2’ Surfing To $135M Holiday Record Opening

Film

As we told you recently, Disney‘s Moana 2 is heading to the best five-day opening ever at the Thanksgiving box office. We gave the six-weekend projection from Quorum, and this morning tracking service NRG — which reports three-weekend-out forecasts — is saying the Hawaiian princess sequel is going to clear $135M over Wednesday-Sunday. That would best the record $125M five-day (not opening) Thanksgiving haul of Frozen 2 ($125M) and the $93.5M five-day opening of Frozen.

Presales for Moana 2 are ahead of Inside Out 2 and Incredibles 2, which opened to $154.2M and $182.6M (3-day), respectively. Tickets went on sale October 28 for the pic starring Auli‘i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson.

Moana 2 is hot with millennials, who remember the original 2016 movie fondly, as well as kids 6-11 (even boys want to see it) and general audiences ages 12-54. AMC CEO Adam Aron said on an earnings call that he heard the sequel could eclipse Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2, which is the highest-grossing movie of 2024 at $652.9M stateside.

Watch on Deadline

RELATED: The Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Box Office: Photo Gallery

The first Moana opened to $82M over five days, ultimately grossing $248.7M stateside.

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced back in February that Moana 2 was happening, spawned from its development as a Disney+ series. The sequel is directed by Dave Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller with music by Grammy winners Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Grammy nominee Opetaia Foa’i and three-time Grammy winner Mark Mancina.

RELATED: Deadline Launches Sound & Screen Film Streaming Site

We’re poised to see the biggest Thanksgiving on record over the five days. There’s also Wicked and Gladiator II opening to $80M and $65M, respectively, on the weekend before Turkey Day. Those respective Universal and Paramount movies are expected to play strong throughout the holiday as Black Friday is one of the highest-grossing days of the year at the box office.

Products You May Like

Articles You May Like

Lionsgate Unsets Guy Ritchie’s ‘In The Grey’
‘SNL’: Watch Charli XCX Perform ‘360,’ ‘Sympathy Is a Knife’
The Real Alice Who Inspired Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ Dead at 83
HBO Doubles Down on Support of JK Rowling, Defends Transphobic Comments as “Personal Views”
10 Perfect Gifts for Book Lovers (That Aren’t Books)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *