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The Lessons of Wickana

Five sure-fire takeaways from the largest Thanksgiving box office on record, including Disney’s resurgence, the reframed success of ‘Gladiator II,’ and a new weekend calibration for ‘Wicked: Part One.’

moana 2
With the largest global animated opening of all time at $389 million, it’s pretty likely that Moana 2 will become Disney’s third $1 billion-plus earner of 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Disney
Scott Mendelson
December 3, 2024

Theaters finally have something to be thankful for: This weekend’s lineup set a new Thanksgiving record with around $427 million in North America for the five days. It was mostly driven by two family movies, Moana 2 and Wicked: Part One, which pulled in best-case-scenario box office despite opening almost concurrently. Disney’s Bob Iger and Alan Bergman clearly made the right call with Moana 2, which was originally a streaming series before Disney opted for a theatrical sequel that hauled over $225 million from Wednesday to Sunday, nearly doubling Frozen II’s $125 million take over the long weekend in 2019 (it had opened the previous Friday).