Box Office: ‘Moana 2’ Serves Up Record $28M Thanksgiving Feast, Heads for $175M-Plus Launch

Moanapocalypse has arrived at the Thanksgiving box office, where a record bounty is underway for Hollywood and theater owners.

Disney’s fantasy musical Moana 2 opened to a record-shattering $57.5 million Wednesday, followed by $28 million on Thursday — the biggest Thanksgiving of all time and the fourth-biggest Thursday for a non-opening day. Rival studios show the animated sequel opening north of $200 million — as in $225 million or more — but Disney won’t comment until Friday so as to avoid what happened last weekend when Wicked and Gladiator II came in millions lower than estimated.

Globally, the film has already earned $109.6 million and the weekend hasn’t even begun, including $85.5 million domestically.

Thanks to the potent combination of Disney’s Moana sequel, Universal’s Wicked and Paramount’s Gladiator II, overall five-day revenue will hit a high for the long Turkey Day holiday, or well north of $400 million (the previous best was 2018 with $316 million). Thanksgiving itself is always slow, but traffic will pick up in earnest Friday.

Moana 2 will shatter numerous records in its launch, including becoming the top Thanksgiving opening of all time for the five days, beating Frozen ($94 million). It will also pass up Frozen II ($125 million) to become the top earner for the five days. And it has already served up the top opening day ever for a Walt Disney Animation title and the third-biggest opening day for any animated title behind Incredibles 2 and Inside Out 2, not adjusted for inflation. It was also the third-biggest day of 2024 to date behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2.

Among other milestones, it could become the biggest five-day opening of all time for any time of the year.

The Disney animated family pic was originally developed as a television series before being reworked as a theatrical sequel. The first Moana — original songs were provided by Lin-Manuel Miranda — was a solid but not spectacular performer at the box office in 2016 before transforming into a cultural sensation, including being the most streamed film across all platforms in 2023. Featuring new songs from Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Moana 2 counts Christina Chen and Yvett Merino as producers.

Directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller, the sequel reunites voice stars Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson. The story follows Moana as she embarks on an unexpected adventure in long-lost waters after receiving a call from her ancestors. Johnson reprises his role as demigod Maui.

Reviewers haven’t been kind to Moana 2, compared to the first film, but it is hardly impacting interest. The movie’s audience score (now known as the “popcornmeter”) on Rotten Tomatoes is already at 88 percent, while it earned an A- CinemaScore (compared 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.

Jon M. Chu‘s Wicked, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, has also enjoyed a record-breaking run so far, and earned $16.9 million on Thursday. It is expected to gross a massive $105.6 million for the five-day holiday corridor, the third-highest holiday gross of all time after opening to $112 million last weekend to rank as the top-grossing adaptation of a Broadway musical. It is expected to finish Sunday with north of $240 million in domestic ticket sales.

Directed by Ridley Scott, Gladiator II is perched in third place and should carve up a pleasing $44 million for the five days for a domestic total of $112 million and nearly $400 million globally. The film’s high-profile cast includes Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal.

Nov. 29, 8:10 a.m.: Updated with revised estimates.

This story was originally published Nov. 28 at 8:31 a.m.