‘Moana 2’ sails to a record $221 million opening as Hollywood celebrates a moviegoing feast

NEW YORK (AP) - Christmas came early at the box office this year.

"Moana 2" brought in a tidal wave of moviegoers over the Thanksgiving Day weekend, setting records with $221 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. That, combined with "Wicked" and "Gladiator II," made for an unprecedented weekend in cinemas and a confluence of blockbusters more like what's often found in late December.

Expectations were high for Walt Disney Co.'s "Moana 2," but the film blew predictions out of the water. Its five-day opening set a new record for Thanksgiving moviegoing. The previous best was $125 million for "Frozen 2" in its second week of release in 2019. "Moana 2" added $165.3 million internationally.

At the same time, the sensation of "Wicked" showed no signs of slowing down. The Universal Pictures musical brought in $117.5 million over the five-day weekend, pushing its two-week global total to $359.2 million. Not accounting for inflation, "Wicked" is now the highest grossing Broadway adaptation over "Grease." (That 1978 film grossed $190 million, but factoring in inflation would put it past $900 million.)

"Gladiator II," meanwhile, also held well, dipping 44% from its opening weekend. Ridley Scott's sequel to his Oscar-winning best picture original collected $44 million in its second weekend. While its steep price tag of $250 million will make profitability challenging, "Gladiator II" has swiftly gathered $320 million worldwide.

Those three films drove the overall box office to more than $400 million in Thanksgiving weekend ticket sales, a record. For an industry that has been battered in recent years by the pandemic, work stoppages and the upheaval caused by streaming, it was a triumphant weekend that showed the still-potent power of Hollywood's blockbuster machine. Before "Wicked," "Moana 2" and "Gladiator II" arrived in theaters, ticket sales were running about 25% behind pre-pandemic levels.

Michael O'Leary, president and chief executive of the National Association of Theatre Owners, said the weekend showed what's possible when "all the pieces of the puzzle come together" in compelling big-budget movies with marketing muscle.

"We're very optimistic that this weekend is the start of what we believe is a full-on charge into the future," he said. “The remaining quarter of this year looks very promising and then on into 2025 and 2026. We're hoping next year is the first kind of normal year this industry has had in a long time."

Like the last time such anticipated movies collided on the release calendar - as in 2023’s much-ballyhooed "Barbenheimer” - the movie industry again could see evidence of a rising moviegoing tide lifting all blockbusters. In recent years, studios have typically tried to space out most of their biggest releases. Earlier this fall, "Venom: The Last Dance,” for example, was the No. 1 film for three straight weeks, despite not being particularly successful.

"For a long, long time in Hollywood, there's been a belief that you don't put big blockbuster movies up against each other," said O’Leary. "But the truth of the matter is that competition is good. It's good for the movies. It's good for the studios. It's good for the theater owners. But it's particularly good for the moviegoing public."