Vaiana 2 on course to break a historic record at the US box office

His new adventures on the Pacific Ocean could do better than Frozen 2.

She will surf the end of year celebrations with disconcerting ease. As expected, Moana 2 is a huge box. Released exceptionally this Wednesday in the United States, for the Thanksgiving long weekend, the Disney film earned $57.5 million at the US box office for its first day. A historic performance, which breaks the record for a Thanksgiving Wednesday, previously held by Matrix Revolutions (25 million in 2003).

If we look at the calendars more broadly, Wednesday of Moana 2 ranks 4th in the all-time US Wednesday release chart (at any time of year), behind Twilight, chapter III (68 million in 2010), Transformers 2 (62 million in 2009) and Harry Potter 6 (58 million in 2010), all three released during the summer. Finally, this is the third best first day in the history of a Disney film, after The Incredibles 2 ($71.2 million in 2018) and Vice versa 2 ($63.6 million in 2024).

Even more, Moana 2 – originally developed as a television series for Disney+ – is on track to break the all-time record for Thanksgiving weekend. Analysts estimate the film will have grossed $175 million by Sunday evening, after its first five days in theaters. Some even count on 200 million… In any case, it should beat the historical record, held by Frozen 2 ($125 million for Thanksgiving 2019).

Note that American cinemas will be sold out during the weekend, since two other blockbusters have just arrived in theaters: Wickedthe adaptation of the Broadway musical sensation, grossed $20.4 million on Wednesday and is expected to gross nearly $100 million over this Thanksgiving weekend. Sunday evening, the film, which got off to an excellent start last week, will certainly be around $250 million at the US box office.

A little less for Gladiator IIwhich only collected $6.6 million this Wednesday and estimates predict a Thanksgiving weekend of around $40 million in North American theaters through Sunday. It would then be worth $107 million in revenue at the US box office.