Moana, Wicked, Gladiator II Set To Shatter Thanksgiving Box Office Records

The Hollywood Reporter cited impressive data showing that Disney’s Moana sequel, Universal’s Wicked, and Paramount’s Gladiator II are set to break US box-office records for the Thanksgiving holiday week. 

“Thanks to the potent combination of Disney’s Moana sequel, Universal’s Wicked and Paramount’s Gladiator II, overall five-day revenue will hit a high for the long Turkey Day holiday, or well north of $400 million (the previous best was 2018 with $316 million),” the media outlet wrote in a report on Friday. 

Here’s more from the report:

Disney’s fantasy musical Moana 2 opened to a record-shattering $57.5 million on Wednesday, followed by $28 million on Thursday — the biggest Thanksgiving of all time and the fourth-biggest Thursday for a non-opening day. Rival studios show the animated sequel opening north of $200 million — as in $225 million or more — but Disney won’t comment until Friday so as to avoid what happened last weekend when Wicked and Gladiator II came in millions lower than estimated.

…

Moana 2 will shatter numerous records in its launch, including becoming the top Thanksgiving opening of all time for the five days, beating Frozen ($94 million). It will also pass up Frozen II ($125 million) to become the top earner for the five days. And it has already served up the top opening day ever for a Walt Disney Animation title and the third-biggest opening day for any animated title behind Incredibles 2 and Inside Out 2, not adjusted for inflation. It was also the third-biggest day of 2024 to date behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2.

As of early Friday afternoon, Bloomberg dropped this headline…

• DISNEY SEES ‘MOANA 2′ SETTING THANKSGIVING WEEKEND RECORD

‘Moanapocalypse’ hits the box office.

‘MOANA 2’ already crossed $100M globally.

The film had a $150M budget. pic.twitter.com/JKSyqLAGKS

— The Hollywood Handle (@HollywoodHandle) November 29, 2024

Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday week, AMC Entertainment Holdings, the world’s largest movie theater chain, reported record revenue last weekend. The chain operates 900 theaters with 10,000 screens globally, including 660 theaters and 8,200 screens in the US. 

“Naturally, we are pleased that at our US theatres, AMC just recorded our highest revenues for a pre-Thanksgiving weekend in AMC’s entire history. Similarly, it is thoroughly satisfying that fully 4.6 million people graced our AMC Theatres in the US and Odeon Cinemas abroad over the just completed four days Thursday to Sunday. What a wonderful way to head into what we expect will be a busy and entertaining holiday moviegoing season,” AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron wrote in a statement. 

In markets, the ‘meme’ stock AMC hovers around the $5 handle as traders on this quiet half-day overlooked this week’s Thanksgiving box-office blowout.

Bloomberg data shows 13.3% of the float is short, or about 49.8 million shares. 

We covered AMC earlier this week in a note titled “‘Meme’ Stock AMC Reports Pre-Thanksgiving Revenue Record.”

Redditors are more focused on crypto pumps than meme stocks…