Last week, Disney released “Moana 2” in cinemas around the world and it’s already a massive success for the studio, as within the first five days of release, it pulled in over $221 million in the United States, making it the biggest Thanksgiving debut and Thanksgiving weekend (3-day and 5-day), the biggest Thanksgiving day, and the biggest Black Friday ever. 

The film, which reunites Moana (voice of Auli‘i Cravalho) and Maui (voice of Dwayne Johnson) three years later for an expansive new voyage, opened in most markets around the world with $165M internationally, bringing its global cume to date to $386M, the second biggest global debut of 2024. 

Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman said in a statement:

“‘Moana 2’ has far surpassed our high expectations this weekend and is a testament to the phenomenon that ‘Moana’ has become.  We’re fortunate to have an incredibly talented and hard-working creative team at Disney Animation who brought this new adventure to life, alongside our wonderful stars Auli’i and Dwayne and great new music. This is a moment to celebrate, and we’re thankful to all the moviegoers and fans who’ve helped make this a record-breaking debut.”

The Domestic records “Moana 2” broke 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. 

This is Disney’s third film this year to surpass $150M domestically in its opening weekend, alongside Marvel Studios’ “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($211M) and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” ($155M), marking the three biggest openings of 2024.

“Moana 2” is off to a strong start internationally as well, driven by No. 1 openings around the world. 

• 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

It is now open in all markets except Japan, Thailand, and Hong Kong, releasing in all three in the coming week, plus with very little new out for a week or so, plus the holidays, it’s likely we are going to see “Moana 2” become one of the biggest films of the year.

Roger’s Take:  Considering this film was originally being developed as a Disney+ series, that decision to flip it to a movie was, without doubt, a fantastic idea and with the success of “Moana 2” at the cinema this past weekend, we should expect the movie to arrive on Disney+ a little later,  so Disney can make more money at the box office.  So don’t expect to see “Moana 2” arrive on Disney+ for a few more months. 

Did you go see “Moana 2” at the cinema this weekend?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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