Battle at the Box Office 12/2/24
While critics were lukewarm on Moana 2, audiences surged to see it over Thanksgiving, giving Walt Disney Animation its biggest opening ever.
Moana 2 had a weekend total of $139.7 million but $225.4 for a domestic total as it opened on Wednesday last week. It’s the biggest Thanksgiving weekend of all time, topping Frozen II’s $85.9 million, along with the biggest Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday totals. It’s also the biggest 5-day opening ever, topping The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s $206 million last year. It tops Frozen II by around $9 million, making it the biggest opening weekend in Walt Disney Animation history. Audiences gave it a solid A-, so it should have long legs in theaters that will probably last until Christmas when Mufasa: The Lion King will take things over. Moana 2 has $389.2 million worldwide and is the 14th biggest movie worldwide for 2024.
Wicked held strong against the onslaught of Moana 2, only dropping 28% from last weekend’s excellent opening and making another $81.1 million for the weekend, and it has a domestic total of $263.1 million. Worldwide, it has $360.3 million.
Gladiator II also performed well in counter-programming against the family fare, dropping 44% from last weekend and making another $31 million. It now has $111.4 million domestically and $320.2 million worldwide.
Thanksgiving also seemed to give a considerable boost to Red One and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (or maybe those were the backups if Moana 2 or Wicked were sold out), as they finished 4th and 5th, respectively, and each dropped less than 10% from last weekend. Red One has $75.8 million domestically, while The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has $31.9 million domestically.
Further down the list, A Real Pain moved into the top 10, making $655,910 and taking 10th place. It has $6.1 million domestically so far.
The per-Theater average went to Moana 2, which earned $33,283 in each of the 4,200 theaters it played in.
