Auliʻi Cravalho voices Moana in Disney Animation's “Moana 2.”
disney
The domestic box office is set for its biggest Thanksgiving gross since the pandemic thanks to a Polynesian princess, a pair of witches and a revenge-driven gladiator.
disney “Moana 2” hits theaters Wednesday and will generate between $120 million and $150 million in box office revenue in the United States and Canada through Sunday. Will join universal “evil” and paramount “Gladiator II,” both in their second week of national screenings.
Box office analysts believe the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, which runs from Wednesday to Sunday, should easily generate $200 million in ticket sales and could even become the second or third Thanksgiving weekend. Thanks with the highest grossing in the history of cinema.
“The trifecta of 'Moana 2,' 'Wicked,' and 'Gladiator II' is truly a perfect storm for movie theaters this Thanksgiving,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. .
“The holidays used to regularly see major releases coming together to appeal to all audiences, but until now that has been a challenge for the industry to replicate in the post-pandemic era,” he said. “This year is very different with a holy trinity of releases that could anchor some of the biggest box office results the Christmas frame has ever seen.”
Thanksgiving holiday revenue has not exceeded $200 million since 2019, according to Comscore data. Currently, the highest-grossing Thanksgiving weekend is 2018, led by “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” “Creed II” and “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” which generated $315 million in sales. of combined entries. The second-highest haul for the holiday period was the $294.2 million earned during the same five-day period in 2013.
“Thanksgiving is arguably the most important holiday period of the year for movie theaters, as it sets the tone for the year-end box office run,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “The strength of the final weeks of the year will determine total annual box office revenue and its perception as a win or loss for the industry.”
Disney could use another animation win.
After dominating the Thanksgiving box office for years with titles from Pixar and Disney Animation, it failed to live up to expectations with its recent string of releases.
In 2016, “Moana” was released over the Thanksgiving holiday and generated $82.1 million. The following year, “Coco” grossed $72.9 million during its debut, and in 2018, “Ralph Breaks the Internet” grossed $84.8 million during its debut over the five-day period. Just before the 2019 pandemic, “Frozen II” grossed $125 million over the Thanksgiving holiday after opening the previous week to more than $130 million.
Meanwhile, “Enchantment,” which arrived amid the pandemic, managed to gross $40.6 million in 2021. “Strange World” flopped, having grossed just $18.9 million over the 2022 Christmas period, and ” Wish” fetched a meager $31.6. million in 2023. No Disney animated films were released during Thanksgiving in 2020.
However, “Moana 2” should surpass these post-pandemic releases. It arrives in theaters a year after the first film was named the most-watched film aimed at children and families. And audiences flocked to see Disney and Pixar's “Inside Out 2” over the summer. “Inside Out 2” opened with $154.2 million domestically and grossed over $1 billion worldwide during its entire run.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, CNBC, and Fandango. NBCUniversal distributed “Wicked.”
