‘Moana 2’ knows the way to a massive Thanksgiving weekend

Hello! Welcome to The Box Office Report for the weekend of Nov. 29-Dec.1, 2024. (With bonus numbers for the Thanksgiving five-day weekend.)

1. Moana 2

Weekend gross: $135.5M ($221M five-day)
Total domestic gross: $221M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA

Theater owners knew that Moana 2 was going to be the big one, referring to the Thanksgiving weekend as the Moanapocalypse. The sequel made a meal of a smorgasbord of records, including the biggest opening weekend for Walt Disney Animation Studios (beating Frozen II’s $130.3 million).

Moana 2, which began its life as a Disney+ TV series before being converted into a theatrical movie, is already closing in on the entire domestic box office run for the original Moana ($248.8 million) and currently sits at No. 6 on Disney’s all-time animation chart. (This doesn’t include Pixar films.) Only Frozen II ($477.4 million), Frozen ($401 million), Zootopia ($341.3 million), Moana and Big Hero 6 ($222.6 million) remain ahead of it.

The sequel scored the third highest opening weekend of 2024 even after Wednesday and Thursday grosses. Moana 2 currently has the eighth biggest domestic gross for the year.

This is a wild amount of money that Disney nearly lost out on due to the studio’s original plan to send the animated version of Moana to streaming while focusing on a live-action remake for theaters instead. I’d hope that Disney execs are carefully examining the pros and cons of that live-action remake now. Sure, maybe it’s easy money (the “live”-action Mufasa: The Lion King is currently in danger of being beat by Sonic the Hedgehog 3 based on early tracking), but does the studio risk diluting the Moana brand between Moana 2 and the inevitable Moana 3?

2. Wicked

Weekend gross: $80M ($117.5 five-day)
Total domestic gross: $262.4M
Last weekend: 1st
Percent drop: 29

Moana wasn’t the only highlight of the Thanksgiving weekend. Wicked and Gladiator II remained massive draws, with the musical adaptation adding $80 million over the normal weekend and $117.5 million over the five-day weekend.

Wicked is easily the biggest of director Jon M. Chu’s career, passing Crazy Rich Asians’ $174.5 million lifetime haul in North America.

The musical, for now, sits ahead of Moana 2 at No. 7 on the domestic chart for 2024. Twisters’ $267.8 million should be an easy one for Wicked to pass before setting its sights on the $300 million mark.