Film news: Moana 2 sailing towards U.S. Thanksgiving box office record
Disney’s animated sequel Moana 2 is slated to smash the American Thanksgiving box office record books this weekend.
Variety reports a $57.5 million on Wednesday in U.S. theatres has set the film on course for the biggest Thanksgiving return of all time.
Film News Blitz’s David Bason looks into the numbers ahead of Moana 2’s UK cinema release.
Moana 2 set to smash Frozen II for Thanksgiving supremacy
After its strong opening, Moana 2 is tracking to gross at least $175 million on the domestic U.S. scene - a key driver for film finance success - across the five-day Thanksgiving period.
That would beat the current Thanksgiving all-time top-grosser Frozen II by $50 million and push 2013’s “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” into third place ($109 million).
Moreover, the film’s $57.5 million opening on Wednesday is third all-time for an animated feature film, behind Incredibles 2 ($71.2 million) and Inside Out 2 ($63.6 million), showing there’s money to be made out of sequels.
Moana 2 has thus far grossed $66.3 million worldwide and will grace UK theatres on November 29.
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Moana 2 part of expanding film franchise
The release of Moana 2 in theatres almost didn’t happen.
The animated sequel, featuring the return of Auliʻi Cravalho in the tile role and Dwayne Johnson as demi-god Maui almost didn’t happen.
Instead, the plan was for the Moana follow-up to be a sequel series on the Disney+ streaming service.
However, Disney CEO Bob Iger reversed those plans in February and the series was retrofitted for the big screen as a feature film.
The story sees Moana reunite with Maui and per the official synopsis “ journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced.”
Moana 2 is directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller from a screenplay by Jared Bush and Ledoux Miller.
The news of Moana 2’s box office success will no doubt be positive for Disney execs, who have backed a live-action remake of the original.
The live-action Moana has already started production and sees Johnson reprise his animated character Maui in the flesh.
It is slated for a July 10, 2026 release in cinemas.
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