5 Unprecedented Days in Box Office History

The return of “Moana” after 8 years helped Disney achieve an opening revenue of 221 million USD in the US, breaking the Thanksgiving box office record previously set by the Mouse House with “Frozen II” in 2019.

Moana 2 ( Moana 2 ) is a project by Walt Disney Disney Animation has been cherished and painstakingly produced for many years. Audiences and experts have high expectations for the return of the blockbuster film after 8 years and what it has achieved is beyond imagination.

Released on November 27, Moana 2 establish box office record new Thanksgiving holiday with $221 million over the five-day holiday period, far surpassing its predecessor Frozen II (2019) with 125 million USD.

Moana 2 broke box office records with $221 million in five days. Photo: Disney.

According to Variety , the animated film about the adventure journey of a strong indigenous girl also set the record for the biggest 5-day revenue in history, surpassing the work The Super Mario Bros. Movie Universal in 2023 ($205.6 million).

The three-day total grossed $135.5 million, marking the best opening for Walt Disney Animation, beating Frozen II ($130.2 million last weekend) Thanksgiving 2019).

Ticket sales for the sequel Moana much higher than the initial estimate of $135-145 million.

In the international market, Moana 2 grossed an additional $165.3 million. This brought the film's global gross to $386 million, making it the second-highest-grossing film of the five.

This animated film is Disney's latest box office hit of 2024 following the huge success of Inside Out 2 in June ($1.6 billion) and Deadpool & Wolverine in July ($1.3 billion). These blockbusters somewhat eased the studio's disastrous 2023 with failures like The Marvels , Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , Wish and Haunted Mansion .

“ Moana 2 “‘s opening weekend’ far exceeded our high expectations and is a testament to the phenomenon that the film has become. It is a time to celebrate. We are grateful to all of the moviegoers and fans who helped make the film a record-breaking debut,” Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman said in a statement on December 1.

What is interesting is that Moana 2 was not originally planned for a theatrical release. Instead, the Mouse House wanted to create a musical television series titled Moana based on the 2019 film of the same name and shown on Disney +. This information was shared by Jennifer Lee, chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, in December 2020.

In the years that followed, the production team worked on a TV series while developing the live-action film. It wasn’t until February that Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the TV series would be adapted into a feature film.

Next to Moana 2 , Wicked and Gladiator II are all on the rise, creating an unprecedented successful weekend at US theaters.

Universal Pictures' Green Witch musical grossed $117.5 million over the five-day weekend, bringing its two-week global total to $359.2 million.

Wicked still maintains its appeal after 2 weeks of showing. Photo: Universal Pictures.

Meanwhile, Paramount's action epic grossed $44 million in its second weekend, despite a hefty $250 million budget that made profitability difficult. Gladiator II quickly grossed $320 million worldwide.

According to Comscore , the three films above brought the box office revenue to a record $422 million (counting all films in theaters), breaking the previous standard set in 2018 with $315 million, most notably Ralph Breaks the Internet , Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Creed II . Audience numbers are a significant improvement from 2023 — one of the worst years in modern history, when Wish Disney's prequel to Hunger Games - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and historical drama Napoleon Ridley Scott's could only push its total ticket sales to $125 million.