NEW YORK – Christmas came early at the box office this year.


“Moana 2” generated a flood of moviegoers over Thanksgiving Day weekend and set records with $221 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. That, combined with “Bad” And ‘Gladiator II’, provided an unprecedented weekend in cinemas and a confluence of blockbusters that are more like what you often encounter in late December.


Expectations were high for Walt Disney Co.’s “Moana 2,” but the film blew the predictions out of the water. The five-day opening set a new record for Thanksgiving movie attendance. The previous best was $125 million for “Frozen 2” in its second week of release in 2019. “Moana 2” added $165.3 million internationally.


At the same time, the feeling of “Wicked” showed no signs of slowing down. The Universal Pictures musical grossed $117.5 million over the five-day weekend, bringing its two-week global total to $359.2 million. Without taking inflation into account, “Wicked” is now the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation over “Grease.” (That 1978 film grossed $190 million, but if you factor in inflation, the price would top $900 million.)


“Gladiator II,” meanwhile, also held up well, dropping 44% from its opening weekend. Ridley Scott’s sequel to his Oscar-winning original film grossed $44 million in its second weekend. While its hefty $250 million price tag will make profitability a challenge, “Gladiator II” has quickly collected $320 million worldwide.


These three films brought the total box office to over $400 million in ticket sales over the Thanksgiving weekend, a record. For an industry that has been hit in recent years by the pandemic, work stoppages and the unrest caused by streaming, it was a triumphant weekend that showcased the still-potent power of Hollywood’s blockbuster machine. Before “Wicked,” “Moana 2” and “Gladiator II” hit theaters, ticket sales were about 25% behind pre-pandemic levels.


Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners, said the weekend showed what’s possible when “all the pieces of the puzzle come together” in compelling films with big budgets and marketing power.


“We are very optimistic that this weekend marks the start of what we believe is a full-scale assault on the future,” he said. “The remaining quarter of this year looks promising and then on to 2025 and 2026. We hope that next year is the first kind of normal year this sector has had in a long time.”


Just like the last time such anticipated films clashed on the release calendar – as in the much-discussed 2023 film “Barbenheimer” – the film industry could see further evidence of a rising movie tide that is lifting all the blockbusters. In recent years, studios have typically tried to space out most of their biggest releases. For example, earlier this fall there was ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ the No. 1 movie for three consecutive weeksdespite not being particularly successful.


“There has long been a belief in Hollywood that you can’t pit big blockbusters against each other,” says O’Leary. “But the truth is that competition is good. It’s good for the movies. It’s good for the studios. It’s good for the theater owners. But above all it is good for the film audience.”



Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.


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