Box office: Moana 2 sails into the American Thanksgiving record books

Also: Wicked would have had the 2nd-best Thanksgiving of all time if it hadn't been for that Disney cartoon; and Gladiator II is now Denzel Washington's top-grossing movie ever worldwide.

The title character (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho) in Moana 2.

The public’s on-again, off-again relationship with the theatrical-movie business was on again in a big, big way this weekend.

Moana 2—which, until only ten months ago, was going to be a Disney+ series and not a movie in any way, shape, or form—set a couple new records for the American Thanksgiving weekend, earning $135.5 million over the regular three-day weekend and a whopping $221 million since opening last Tuesday.

The sequel to 2016’s Moana obliterated the previous record held by Frozen II, which earned $86 million over the three-day weekend and $125 million over the five-day holiday weekend during its second week in theatres in 2019.

Moana 2 also beat the previous record for a film that opened over Thanksgiving, which was set by the original Frozen when it earned $67.4 million over the three-day weekend and $93.6 million over the five-day holiday weekend in 2013.

And while Moana 2 didn’t quite have the biggest three-day opening of any animated movie ever—at least four films still rank ahead of it—it did score the best end-of-first-Sunday cume of any animated movie ever, beating the $204.6 million that The Super Mario Bros Movie earned in the week leading up to Easter last year.

But the excitement didn’t stop there.

Wicked, the first part of a two-film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, grossed $80 million three-day / $117.5 million five-day in its second weekend, which itself was the 3rd-best Thanksgiving performance ever, behind Moana 2 and Frozen II.

Wicked has now grossed $262.4 million after just ten days (plus previews), which already makes it the top-grossing live-action musical that isn’t a remake of a Disney cartoon.

And Gladiator II was still going strong in its second weekend, earning another $30.7 million three-day / $44 million five-day to raise its North American total to $111.2 million. With another $208.8 million overseas, it has earned $320 million worldwide so far—making it Denzel Washington’s biggest global hit, already, by far.

Meanwhile, in other news, Red One (starring J.K. Simmons as Santa Claus) and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever got a seasonal boost, as both films earned almost as much this weekend as they did last weekend, dropping only 2% and 4% respectively. (Every other film in last week’s top ten dropped between 29% and 70% this week.)

Red One has earned about $76 million after three weeks in North America, which isn’t great considering the film’s rumoured $250 million price tag.

For its part, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever has earned $32 million after four weeks, which is pretty good for a film with a reported $10 million budget. The film is now the 2nd-biggest “faith-based” movie of the decade (behind Jesus Revolution) and just a few days away from becoming the top-grossing Lionsgate release of the year.

Add it all up, and this year’s Thanksgiving weekend—with well over $400 million in ticket sales for all films combined—was the biggest in box-office history, trouncing the $314.9 million that was earned over the five-day period in 2018, when the top four films were Ralph Breaks the Internet, Creed II, Fantastic Beasts 2, and The Grinch.

And now, a few more stats and facts re: this week’s top ten, title by title: