Disney’s Moana 2 has broken all box-office records this Thanksgiving, making it the biggest holiday movie opening of all time.
The movie made $57.5 million on Wednesday, including $13.8 million from early previews. It is expected to make more than $175 million over its five-day opening from Wednesday to Sunday- via The Hollywood Reporter.
Moana 2 is on track to become the most profitable holiday movie opening, beating both Frozen and Frozen II. Frozen made $94 million and Frozen II made $125 million in their five-day openings.
This new Moana movie is also doing well in terms of animated films. It has had the biggest opening for any Disney animated movie and is now the third-biggest opening for any animated film, right behind Incredibles 2 and Inside Out 2 (numbers not adjusted for inflation).
Moana 2 is even doing better than some live-action films. So far, it has had the third-biggest opening of 2024, right behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2.
With Auli’i Cravalho returning to voice Moana, the movie has attracted many viewers. But it has not been as popular with critics.
Right now, it has a 66% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is much lower than the 95% score for the first Moana movie in 2016, which was Certified Fresh. The score could go up or down as more reviews come in, but many movie critics seem disappointed by the sequel, even though the animation is beautiful.
Moana 2 is already showing in US theaters and will be released in UK theaters on November 29. The first Moana movie is available to stream on Disney+.