Disney’s animated sequel Moana 2 was just what audiences wanted this Thanksgiving holiday. The film opened with a domestic take of $221M, enough to set a record for the biggest 5-day opening of all time, the biggest Thanksgiving debut and Thanksgiving weekend (3-day and 5-day), the biggest Thanksgiving day, and the biggest Black Friday ever. In most cases Moana 2 beat records set by Frozen or Frozen 2, meaning Disney owns Thanksgiving Weekend.
Not bad for a film that as of a few years ago was going to be a Disney streaming series. An animated Disney+ follow-up to 2016’s well received Moana had been in the planning stages since 2020. In February 2024, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that it would be a movie instead – how long they had to pivot isn’t clear, but it was most likely no farther back than 2022. It’s still not much lead time for a Disney animated movie, and the shift to a feature resulted in many dropped plots and songs. But TV origin or no, it definitely hit the sweet spot for audiences over the holiday.
The original Moana drew on Polynesian culture and legends, and featured Auli’i Cravalho in the title role and Dwayne Johnson as the demigod Maui. The story found Moana going on a perilous sea-journey, aided by Maui, to save her people.
In the sequel, Moana also goes on a perilous sea-journey, aided by Maui, to save her people. Look, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Moana 2’s triumph seals a big comeback year for Disney, with Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine the #1 and #2 films of the year….for now. And with Wicked and Gladiator 2 also doing well, it turns out people still like leaving the house and sitting with strangers in a darkened room where heartbreak feels good.
While critics have been lukewarm on Moana 2, audiences are somewhat pleased. As for why it was such a huge hit, Moana has been constantly streamed – in 2021 it was it was the second most streamed film, and in 2023 it was the MOST streamed. And don’t discount the need for parents and kids to just get out of the house after days of gorging on turkey with all the trimmings.
You will definitely be able to gorge on more Moana, as well. A live-action remake, with Cravalho and Johnson, was already underway, with some set leak photos getting out just last month. And you can bet that some of those subplots and songs might be reworked for the inevitable Moana 3.
It’s also a welcome hit for Johnson, whose status as a box office draw has been called into question of late. With the live action version in the works, The Rock’s cooking will be smelled in many places indeed.
Moana 2 was directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller, with a screenplay by Jared Bush and Miller. Cravalho, Johnson, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House, and Alan Tudyk are all back from the first film. The songs are by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear (the first all-female songwriting team for a Disney film) replacing Lin-Manuel Miranda from the first film. (Whatever happened to that guy anyway?)
A complete list of Moana 2’s box office records, courtesy of Disney:
Domestic records include:
- Biggest 5-day opening of all-time (surpassing “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”/$204.6M)
- Biggest Thanksgiving weekend of all time by far ($221M 5-day, $135.5M 3-day, surpassing “Frozen 2”/$125M 5-day and $94M 3-day)
- Biggest Thanksgiving debut by far (more than doubling “Frozen”/$94M 5-day and $67M 3-day)
- Thanksgiving Day of $28M (nearly doubling “Frozen 2”/$15M)
- Highest ever Black Friday at the box office with $54.5M (exceeding “Frozen 2”/$34.2M)
- Biggest Walt Disney Animation Studios debut of all time.
- Disney now holds the top 7 Thanksgiving debuts of all time and 9 of the top 10.
In addition, in foreign markets:
- Highest animated opening weekend of all time in France
- Second highest animated weekend of all time in Italy and Brazil
- Highest WDAS opening weekend of all time across the Latin American region and in nearly 30 individual markets worldwide, including France, Italy, Australia, Brazil and Mexico
And here’s the latest TV spot:
