Moana 2 Makes Waves at Thanksgiving Box Office Despite Lukewarm Reviews

Moana 2 Makes Waves at Thanksgiving Box Office Despite Lukewarm Reviews

As a seasoned cinema enthusiast who’s witnessed the rise and fall of many silver screen titans, I must say that the box office phenomenon that is “Moana 2” has left me utterly bewildered yet oddly fascinated. It’s a rare spectacle indeed to witness a film sail into theaters on a tide of tepid reviews yet still manage to rake in the moolah like there’s no tomorrow.


Despite mixed reviews, it seems that ‘Moana 2’ is proving to be unsinkable at the box office. The animated musical, released by Disney on Wednesday, has set a new record for Walt Disney Animation Studios with its $13.8 million in Tuesday previews, trailing only behind Pixar’s ‘Incredibles 2’. This impressive figure surpasses the opening of ‘Frozen II’ and even tops the earnings of ‘Wreck-It Ralph 2’ from the same period last year.

The sneak peeks for Moana 2 surpassed those of Inside Out 2 and Toy Story 4, which later achieved over $1 billion at the box office (with earnings of $1.69 billion and $1.07 billion respectively). Not only is Moana’s sequel, released eight years after the original, predicted to have the highest Thanksgiving opening with estimated earnings between $125 million and $135 million over five days and a global total of $235 million by Sunday. It may even surpass the earnings of Inside Out 2, currently the top-grossing movie of the year. This is impressive given that it’s facing competition from “Glicked” (Gladiator II and Wicked) and has received less favorable reviews than the other major releases on Rotten Tomatoes.

Moana 2 Makes Waves at Thanksgiving Box Office Despite Lukewarm Reviews

In a comparison, Moana 2 currently has a Tomatometer rating of 66%, which is lower than Gladiator II’s 71% and Wicked’s impressive 90%. However, it excels on the Popcornmeter with an audience-verified score of 88%. Interestingly, Moana 2’s initial Rotten Tomatoes score was 70%, but it dropped to 66% after the review embargo lifted, placing it below Disney Animation’s Strange World, which scored 72%.

On Metacritic, the sequel to “Moana” is rated 57 by critics, suggesting a mix of positive and negative reviews, while users have given it an average rating of 5.0, indicating similar mixed reception. In contrast, “Strange World” earned a 65 from critics, meaning generally favorable reviews, but only a 3.6 from the audience, signifying mostly unfavorable feedback.

Moana 2 Makes Waves at Thanksgiving Box Office Despite Lukewarm Reviews

In the 2022 Thanksgiving weekend, the movie “Strange World” underperformed at the box office, earning $18.6 million over five days, similar to just the preview numbers of “Incredibles 2.” By the end of its 72-day run in cinemas, “Strange World” had only grossed $39 million domestically and $31.6 million internationally, amounting to a total worldwide revenue of $70.6 million. Estimates suggest that the first day of “Moana 2” is projected to rake in around $54 million, including Tuesday previews.

Not only is Disney’s box office success in 2024 a significant comeback for them, being the leading studio globally, but it’s particularly good news for Walt Disney Animation Studios, which had two consecutive disappointments with “Strange World” and last year’s anniversary film “Wish” ($255 million worldwide).

“Moana 2” is set to become the studio’s highest-grossing film since 2019’s “Frozen 2” ($1.45 billion), outperforming the global earnings of Disney Animation’s pandemic movies, such as “Raya and the Last Dragon” ($130 million) and “Encanto” ($261 million), which were only released in theaters for a shorter period before streaming on Disney+.

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2024-11-28 05:09