‘Moana 2′ leads historic Thanksgiving box office weekend

The combined forces of “Moana 2,” “Wicked: Part 1″ and “Gladiator II” fueled the “highest-grossing Thanksgiving ever at the box office,” according to NBC News.
The three movies brought in a combined $420 million to the box office during Thanksgiving weekend — surpassing the previous record of $315.6 million from 2018, when “Creed II,” “Ralph Breaks the Internet” and “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” were all in theaters.
According to CNBC, analysts originally predicted that “Moana 2″ would bring in $100 million to the box office. Instead, it brought in $221 million.
It was the “highest Thanksgiving weekend performance of a film ever,” the article said, outperforming “Frozen II” in 2019, which brought in $125 million during the same period of time.
“There is no shortage of words to describe the historic weekend we’ve seen unfold at movie theaters,” Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory, told CNBC.
He continued, “When one film exceeds expectations in the way ‘Moana 2′ has, that alone is a big story. When fellow tentpole films like ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’ excel at the same time, it’s a powerful reminder of the importance moviegoing continues to hold in our culture.”
According to Variety, both “Gladiator II” and “Wicked” continue to bring big numbers at the box office.
“Wicked” nabbed the No. 2 spot over the two-day weekend, bringing in $80 million. During the five-day holiday period, it made a total of $117.5 million.
“Wicked” is now “highest-grossing Broadway adaptation in domestic box office history,” the article said, and the “fourth-biggest worldwide stage-to-screen reimagining.”
The film is behind 2008′s “Mamma Mia!” and 2012′s “Les Miserables,” which brought in $611 million and $442 million, respectively.
“Gladiator II” came in third, bringing in $30.7 million over the two-day weekend and $44 million over the five-day holiday stretch, Variety reported.
“Wicked” has made $359.2 million globally so far, while “Gladiator II” has made $320 million.
Despite a warm audience reception, critics were lukewarm about “Moana 2.” The sequel currently has an critics score of 65% on Rotten Tomatoes.
As Margaret Darby wrote for the Deseret News, “‘Moana 2′ tumbles into the same pitfall that’s trapped hundreds of sequels before it — the appeal of an original movie is rarely recreated in a follow-up film.”
Here’s what a few other critics had to say: