Box Office Report: You're Welcome

Nobody is surprised that Moana 2 did amazingly this past weekend. There’s a reason no other studio decided to compete with Disney in this slot. Even though this was never intended to be a movie sequel and reviews reflect that, this is a sequel to a beloved Disney movie that appeals to young kids and their families, so the money prints itself. Hey, I imagine Thanksgiving weekend was tough for a lot of people. At least in the cinema, you don’t have to talk to your relatives.

Moana 2 burst through the doors with a $135.5 million opening weekend, from 4,200 theatres. Added to the earnings brought in from the added holidays, and it came to a mighty $221 million. That’s about $42 million (plus change) more than Wicked has earned in its two weeks of release. So, I’m sure Dwayne Johnson is prepping Moana 3 alongside that live-action remake. It’s no Black Adam, obviously. Or Red One, which is floundering hard.

Wicked continues to do excellently. The studios were predicting a far bigger drop in attendance in its second week of release, if only because Moana 2 would be hogging up more of its demographic’s attention. Yet it only saw a 28.9% drop from its premiere. That’s hella impressive. The numbers weren’t too shabby for Gladiator II either, all things considered. That film has now made $111.2 million domestically. The witches are winning overall, domestically and internationally, but it’s still solid to see Ridley Scott’s latest get past $300 million worldwide. Will it make back its huge budget? Well…

The awards movies are getting their limited releases, gearing up for (hopefully) slow-burn box office numbers in the lead-up to Oscar night. Up next, we have Queer, Luca Guadagnino’s drama starring Daniel Craig. As with many A24 movies, this one had a major boom in its opening, with $188,808 from only seven locations. I doubt the distributor expects this one to be a mainstream hit but it could lead Craig to the podium next year (he is that good in it.)

The Seed of the Sacred Fig made $33,004 from three cinemas. The Iranian political drama directed by Mohammad Rasoulof premiered at Cannes earlier this year to rave reviews. Rasoulof was forced to flee Iran just to attend its premiere after he was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison and a flogging by the government. While the film has, unsurprisingly, not been chosen by Iran as its Best International Feature contender for the Oscars, it will represent Germany in the same category since post-production took place there, after Rasoulof managed to smuggle his footage to Hamburg for post-production.

This coming week sees the release of anime movie Solo Leveling: ReAwakening, the horror comedy Y2K, and Werewolves. I wonder what that’s about.

You can check out the rest of the weekend box office here.