‘Moana 2’ leads Thanksgiving box office, could be best in years | Real Time Headlines

Thanks to a Polynesian princess, a pair of witches and a vengeful gladiator, the domestic box office is on track to have its biggest Thanksgiving haul since the pandemic began.

disney “Moana 2” opens on Wednesday and will gross $120 million to $150 million in the U.S. and Canada by Sunday. it will join Universal “evil” and Paramount “Gladiator II” Both films are in their second week of domestic release.

Box office analysts believe that the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, which runs from Wednesday to Sunday, should easily top $200 million, and could even become the second or third highest Thanksgiving period in movie history.

“The ‘Moana 2’, ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator 2’ trilogy is truly a perfect storm for movie theaters this Thanksgiving,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. In the past, the festival season has often seen major films combine to appeal to all audiences, but it has been a challenge for the industry so far in the post-pandemic era with such a divine trio. The film may set the holiday frame for the biggest overall box office hit ever.

Sales during the Thanksgiving holiday haven’t topped $200 million since 2019, according to Comscore. Currently, the top-grossing films during the 2018 Thanksgiving weekend are “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Creed II” and “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” which together grossed $315 million. The second-highest revenue during the holiday period was $294.2 million earned during the same five-day period in 2013.

“Thanksgiving is arguably the most important holiday of the year for movie theaters as it sets the tone for the year-end box office rush,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “The strength of the last few weeks of the year will determine annual box office totals and Its perception of the industry’s wins or losses.”

And, Disney could capitalize on another animation win.

back Dominating the Thanksgiving Box Office It has been churning out titles from Pixar and Disney Animation for years, but a slew of recent releases have failed to live up to expectations.

In 2016, “Moana” opened during the Thanksgiving holiday and grossed $82.1 million at the box office. The next year, “Coco” debuted with $72.9 million, and in 2018, “Wreck-It Ralph” grossed $84.8 million in its first five days. Just before the pandemic hit in 2019, “Frozen 2” grossed more than $130 million at the box office during the Thanksgiving holiday, and it topped $125 million after being released the week before.

Meanwhile, “Encanto,” which was released during the pandemic, grossed $40.6 million in 2021. It earned a meager $31.6 at the box office.

However, “Moana 2” should perform better than these post-pandemic releases. It’s hitting theaters a year after the first film was named the top streaming movie for kids and families. This summer, audiences turned out in droves to see Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2. “Inside Out 2” debuted with $154.2 million domestically and grossed more than $1 billion during its global run.

Revealed: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, CNBC and Fandango. NBCUniversal distributes “Wicked.”