The box office surge that lifted Thanksgiving weekend to a $426 million 5-day record is carrying over to the historically slow start of December, as Disney’s “Moana 2” has earned a post-Thanksgiving record $52 million in its 2nd weekend.
Even if that’s a 63% drop from the sequel’s $139.7 million 3-day opening last weekend, it blows past the previous post-Thanksgiving high of $35.2 million set by “Frozen II” in 2019. Unlike in the summer, Thanksgiving family films don’t have the advantage of kids being out of school the next weekend, which makes this result for the family-driven “Moana 2” a strong one.
“Moana 2” now stands at an even $600 million worldwide, and should pass the $643 million unadjusted global total of the first “Moana” in around two weeks of theatrical play. It already passed the $248.7 million unadjusted domestic total of its predecessor in just 10 days, and is cruising towards becoming the third $1 billion hit of 2024…all of which were released by Disney.
“Wicked” won’t hit a billion due to interest in the Broadway musical largely being concentrated in the U.S., but that’s no sweat off Universal’s brow as the film has crossed $450 million worldwide with a $34.8 million domestic third weekend. With $320 million in North America, “Wicked” is set to be the only non-Disney release this year to top $400 million domestic.
Paramount’s “Gladiator II” is in third with $12.4 million for a three-weekend domestic total of $133.7 million and $368.4 million worldwide. Combined, the three major November releases have helped lift the overall total for the weekend to an estimated $131 million, passing the unadjusted record of $119 million set in 2018 for the best post-Thanksgiving weekend.
In fourth is Amazon MGM’s “Red One” with $6.7 million in its fourth weekend and an $85.4 million domestic total. The holiday action film should reach $100 million in domestic grosses, though its $164 million global total is well short of its reported $250 million production budget.
Completing the top 5 is the Telugu-language action film “Pushpa 2,” which hit theaters on Thursday and has earned $5.5 million over the weekend with a $10 million 4-day start from 1,245 theaters. It is common for specialty and non-English international films to hit theaters in early December, as was the case for last year’s breakout Japanese hit “Godzilla Minus One.”
