Incoming Thanksgiving Tidal Wave At The Box Office: ‘Moana 2’ Surfing To $135M Holiday Record Opening

Anthony D'Alessandro

Thu, November 7, 2024 at 5:18 PM UTC

2 min read

Disney's Moana 2 is projected to clear $135M over the Thanksgiving weekend, potentially surpassing the record set by Frozen 2 and Frozen.
Presales for Moana 2 are ahead of other popular animated films like Inside Out 2 and Incredibles 2, with strong interest from millennials, kids, and general audiences.
The sequel to the original Moana, directed by Dave Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller, features music by Grammy winners and is expected to contribute to the biggest Thanksgiving box office on record.

A s we told you recently , Disney’s Moana 2 is heading to the best five-day opening ever at the Thanksgiving box office. We gave the six-weekend projection from Quorum, and this morning tracking service NRG — which reports three-weekend-out forecasts — is saying the Polynesian princess sequel is going to clear $135M over Wednesday-Sunday. That would best the record $125M five-day (not opening) Thanksgiving haul of Frozen 2 ($125M) and the $93.5M five-day opening of Frozen.

Presales for Moana 2 are ahead of Inside Out 2 and Incredibles 2, which opened to $154.2M and $182.6M (3-day), respectively. Tickets went on sale October 28 for the pic starring Auli‘i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson.

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Moana 2 is hot with millennials, who remember the original 2016 movie fondly, as well as kids 6-11 (even boys want to see it) and general audiences ages 12-54. AMC CEO Adam Aron said on an earnings call that he heard the sequel could eclipse Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 , which is the highest-grossing movie of 2024 at $652.9M stateside.

The first Moana opened to $82M over five days, ultimately grossing $248.7M stateside.

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced back in February that Moana 2 was happening, spawned from its development as a Disney+ series . The sequel is directed by Dave Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller with music by Grammy winners Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Grammy nominee Opetaia Foa’i and three-time Grammy winner Mark Mancina.

We’re poised to see the biggest Thanksgiving on record over the five days. There’s also Wicked and Gladiator II opening to $80M and $65M , respectively, on the weekend before Turkey Day. Those respective Universal and Paramount movies are expected to play strong throughout the holiday as Black Friday is one of the highest-grossing days of the year at the box office.

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