This holiday stretch has seen the highest-grossing Thanksgiving weekend at the box office ever thanks to a week of big film releases.
First, audiences flocked to theaters to watch a vengeful gladiator battle the horrors of the old Roman Colosseum and sing along with the witches of Oz. After that, they went back to watch Moana’s perilous sea voyage on the big screen.
According to Comscore box office data, the three add up to an estimated Thanksgiving weekend total of $420 million, which surpasses the previous record of $315.6 million set in 2018 by the release of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Creed II.
We not only broke Thanksgiving’s previous records,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for the business. “This sets a completely new standard for what is possible over the Thanksgiving holiday for movie theaters.”
He went on to say that Moana II in particular exceeded the estimates of box office analysts by around $100 million.
With the largest five-day opening ever, including the largest Thanksgiving debut ever, Moana 2 has broken box office records, grossing $221 million in North America since its Wednesday release. The movie nearly quadrupled the $15 million Thanksgiving Day record previously held by Frozen 2, and it rocketed over the previous five-day opening record of $204.6 million for The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
The follow-up to Disney’s 2016 film Moana, which is set in ancient Polynesia, follows Moana, the daughter of an island chief, as she flees her home of Motunui in order to remove the curse of a Polynesian god and save her people.
“The film has far exceeded our high expectations this weekend and is a testament to the phenomenon that Moana has become,” said Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment.
Throughout Thanksgiving weekend, both Universal’s Wicked and Paramount’s Gladiator II made a ton of money. Wicked, which defied gravity to become the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation of all time domestically, made an estimated $117.5 million. During the five days, Gladiator II also brought nearly $44 million at the domestic box office.
Both movies, which were released on November 22 in advance of Thanksgiving week, have drawn a lot of analogies to the Barbie and Oppenheimer phenomenon from last summer, when they produced a cultural moment and an unparalleled box office event. Online fans swiftly called Gladiator II’s double feature and Wicked “glicked.”
The upbeat Broadway musical Wicked, which starred Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, was in stark contrast to Ridley Scott’s action-packed Gladiator II, which featured swords, bloody combat, and ancient warfare. They both proceeded to dominate the box office after the double feature release, thanks to this counterprogramming and a surge in social media excitement that increased initial theater attendance.
Then, the day before Thanksgiving, when kids are finishing school and families are coming together, was what Dergarabedian called the ideal release date for Moana II.
According to Dergarabedian, the Glicked marketing hook and Moana II’s subsequent release of the film combined to produce an unequaled family moviegoing experience. Movie theaters will have a very successful home stretch as a result of this.
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