'Moana 2' Set to Lead Thanksgiving Box Office, Poised to Break Post-Pandemic Records

The domestic box office will see its highest Thanksgiving revenue since the pandemic thanks to a Polynesian princess, a duo of witches, and a vengeance-driven gladiator.

Disney’s Moana 2 is expected to open Wednesday, raking in $120 million to $150 million in domestic and Canadian box office earnings through Sunday. It will be accompanied by Universal’s Wicked and Paramount’s Gladiator II, which both enter their second week.

Industry analysts predict the five-day Thanksgiving weekend-from Wednesday to Sunday-will cross $200 million at the box office, and may even rank among the second or third highest Thanksgiving periods in film history.

Shawn Robbins, head of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory, said the perfect storm this Thanksgiving season at movie theaters is being brewed by the combination of Moana 2, Wicked, and Gladiator II. “Thanksgiving used to pretty reliably bring big broad-market tentpoles,” he explained. “Replicating that has been an elusive effort in the post-pandemic world. But with those three tentpoles, it’s one of the stronger all-around Thanksgiving box office performances.

Also Read: How A.I. creates Faceless videos that Grow Your traffic?

Thanksgiving box office sales have not exceeded $200 million since 2019, according to Comscore data. The highest-grossing Thanksgiving weekend to date was in 2018, led by Ralph Breaks the Internet, Creed II, and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, with a total of $315 million. The second-highest came in 2013, with $294.2 million.

Trailer:

According to Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst at Comscore, “Thanksgiving is one of the most important periods for movie theaters, as it sets the tone for the year-end box office. The performance of the final weeks of the year will determine whether the annual box office is considered a success or a disappointment.”

Disney hopes that Moana 2 will be strong since its last animated films did not meet expectations. In 2016, Moana opened over Thanksgiving to $82.1 million. In the following years, the films earned $72.9 million in 2017 when Coco was the film, $84.8 million in 2018 when Ralph Breaks the Internet was out, and $125 million for Frozen II was earned in 2019. In the pandemic time, Encanto earned $40.6 million in 2021 when Strange World bombed with $18.9 million in 2022. Wish is earning $31.6 million in 2023, and no Disney animated movie was released over Thanksgiving 2020.

However, Moana 2 will surpass those recent post-pandemic releases. This is one year after the first installment of Moana became the most-streamed film for kids and families. Disney also hit it out of the park recently with Inside Out 2 which opened to $154.2 million domestically, while surpassing over $1 billion worldwide.

Next Story: