For those media pundits who still don’t believe that moviegoers will return to theaters consistently, the Thanksgiving weekend frame of 2024 should be a wake-up call. The combined might of three tentpole releases led to a historic $442 million for the five-day frame. This massive return was fueled by the Thanksgiving record opening of “Moana 2” which took in an incredible $221 million. Globally, the sequel earned $386 million, the second-largest global debut of the year.
READ MORE: “Moana 2” Review: This Disney Princess has the power but her songs are weak
Most studios like to tout their box office successes, but you rarely receive a press release surrounding it. Walt Disney Studios had a release and a TV spot ready to go. In that statement, Disney Entertainment and Co-Chairman Alan Bergman remarked, “‘Moana 2’ has far surpassed our high expectations this weekend and is a testament to the phenomenon that ‘Moana’ has become. We’re fortunate to have an incredibly talented and hard-working creative team at Disney Animation who brought this new adventure to life, alongside our wonderful stars Auli’i and Dwayne and great new music. This is a moment to celebrate, and we’re thankful to all the moviegoers and fans who’ve helped make this a record-breaking debut.”
Originally intended as a Disney+ TV series, Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger reconceived the project as a feature. His instincts have led to box office gold and a burgeoning theatrical marketplace, overall. Some of the records “Moana 2” broke include:
- Biggest 5-day opening of all-time (surpassing “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”/$204.6M)
- Biggest Thanksgiving weekend of all time by far ($221M 5-day, $135.5M 3-day, surpassing “Frozen 2”/$125M 5-day and $94M 3-day)
- Biggest Thanksgiving debut by far (more than doubling “Frozen”/$94M 5-day and $67M 3-day)
- Thanksgiving Day of $28M (nearly doubling “Frozen 2”/$15M)
- Highest ever Black Friday at the box office with $54.5M (exceeding “Frozen 2”/$34.2M)
- Biggest Walt Disney Animation Studios debut of all time.
- Disney now holds the top 7 Thanksgiving debuts of all time and 9 of the top 10.
Disney Studios now has the three largest domestic debuts of the year following “Inside Out 2’s” $155 million and “Deadpool & Wolverine’s” $211 million.
Overseas, Disney reports that “Moana 2” spurred the no. 1 animated opening weekend of all time in France, the second-highest animated weekend of all time in Italy and Brazil, and the highest opening weekend of all time for Walt Disney Animated Studios across the Latin American region and in nearly 30 individual markets worldwide, including France, Italy, Australia, Brazil, and Mexico.
The original “Moana” has been a mainstay in Disney+’s trending and top 10 since the streaming service launched over five years ago. A live-action feature version of the story has just wrapped production and will arrive in theaters on July 10, 2026.
There weren’t just celebrations in the Disney corporate slack, however. Universal Studios has a blockbuster on its hands with Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of “Wicked.” In the face of “Moana 2,” the movie musical dropped just 29% for another $80 million over the 3-day and 10-day domestic cume of $262.4 million. That already makes it the highest-grossing movie musical of all time (sorry everyone, “Barbie” is not a musical). Overseas has been slightly less magical, but with another $96.8 million so far, “Wicked” is at a stellar global cume of $359.2 million. With euphoric word of mouth and repeat viewings, “Wicked” should continue to overperform in the weeks ahead.
The third champion of the frame is another sequel, Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II.” Down just 44% over the three-day frame, the Paramount Pictures release took in another $30 million for a stellar $111. 2 million over just 10 days. In a flip of “Wicked’s” reception, the action epic has been even stronger internationally with over $320 million worldwide so far. With a reported $250 million production budget, Paramount is going to hope the film continues to percolate with little action competition on the horizon outside of Sony Pictures’ “Kraven the Hunter” on Dec. 13.
Notably, there was a small silver lining for Amazon MGM Studios with the no. 4 movie of the weekend, “Red One.“ The other Dwayne Johnson movie has been something of a disappointment considering its massive price tag (reportedly $250 million) but it dropped just an eye-brow raising 2% for another $12.8 million and $76 million so far in the U.S. The film absolutely benefited from ticket buyers being shut out of sold-out shows of “Moana 2” and “Wicked.” This hold indicates it has a good shot at hitting $100 million domestic if Amazon MGM Studios keeps it in theaters through the holidays.
On a smaller scale, Lionsgate’s “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” also benefited dropping just 4% for a $3.2 million frame and $32 million so far. At a reported budget of approximately $10 million, the holiday drama is a welcome success after a string of disappointments for Lionsgate.
In limited release, Luca Guadagino’s “Queer” earned $295,000 in just seven theaters since its Wednesday debut. That includes a good, but not great $188,000 over the three-day for $26,973 per screen. NEON’s International Film Oscar contender “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” had a tougher time with just $50,000 in 3 theaters for $11,001 per.
Final box office figures for the frame will be released on Monday.
