Early December is not typically the biggest weekend for the film industry, and that tracks logically when you think about it. The overload of blockbusters that get released during the Thanksgiving holiday tend to scare off big competition, and the lack of those fresh titles cools the marketplace. As such, it's not surprising to see that the four top earners at the box office this weekend are holdovers from November – but there are still some interesting numbers to parse.
Following Moana 2's record-breaking debut last weekend, the Walt Disney Animation Studios movie is the number one movie domestically again. You can check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Moana 2 | $52,000,000 | $300,039,013 | 1 | 4,200 |
| 2. Wicked | $34,850,000 | $320,509,000 | 2 | 3,885 |
| 3. Gladiator II | $12,450,000 | $132,743,000 | 3 | 3,440 |
| 4. Red One | $7,003,917 | $85,785,481 | 4 | 3,150 |
| 5. Interstellar | $4,425,000 | $192,443,000 | N/A | 165 |
| 6. Solo Leveling: ReAwakening* | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | N/A | 846 |
| 7. Y2K* | $2,113,923 | $2,113,923 | N/A | 2,108 |
| 8. For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas* | $2,055,486 | $2,617,135 | N/A | 1,540 |
| 9. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever | $1,525,000 | $34,490,377 | 5 | 1,633 |
| 10. Werewolves* | $1,100,000 | $1,100,000 | N/A | 1,351 |
Moana 2 Crosses $300 Million Domestically And Further Rockets Up The Worldwide Box Office Charts
When Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand, and David Derrick Jr.'s Moana 2 arrived on the big screen last weekend, playing in the wake of the Thanksgiving holiday, it made a monster splash. The new release earned $139.8 million domestically, which registered as the third biggest opening weekend of 2024 – behind only Shawn Levy's Deadpool & Wolverine ($211.4 million) and Kelsey Mann's Inside Out 2 ($153.2 million). In the wake of that epic-ness, it's not overly surprising that ticket sales in the United States and Canada took a dip, but the film has nonetheless continued to establish itself as one of the year's biggest hits.
According to The Numbers, Moana 2 added another $52 million to its coffers since Friday. That's a significant weekend-to-weekend dip of 63 percent, and that's a development that will be worth keeping an eye on as the movie continues its theatrical run through December, but what stands out more is the fact that the Disney release has already made over $300 million at home.
The film is now in a tight battle in the 2024 domestic rankings with Jon Chu's Wicked, which has made $320.5 million to date (and notably had a one-week head start). Before the end of the year, both titles are expected to outgross Chris Renaud's Despicable Me 4 – which ended its domestic run this summer making $361 million – but it would take a miracle for the titles to do better than either Inside Out 2 ($653 million) or Deadpool & Wolverine ($636.7 million).
Outside of the United States and Canada, the competition is a bit different. as Moana 2 is performing much better overseas than Wicked. While the musical Wizard of Oz prequel starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo has earned $135 million abroad, the animated sequel starring Dwayne Johnson and Auli'i Cravalho has made just as much in those markets as it has domestically.
That $600 million haul is already enough for the film to rank as the fifth biggest film of 2024 – the title having already surpassed hits like Adam Wingard's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($568.7 million) and Mike Mitchell's Kung Fu Panda 4 ($548 million). It will need to make another $108.7 million to pass Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two to move into fourth place... but then the next step is taking down Despicable Me 4 ($966.5 million).
It's a significant bounce back for Walt Disney Animation. You may remember that the studio's big release around this time last year was Wish, which turned out to be a box office dud that only made $240.4 million by the end of its big screen run. The success of Moana 2 is also a healthy outcome for the theatrical marketplace – but one also has to hope that this won't lead WDAS to become even more reliant on sequels in the coming years.
Glicked Isn't Barbenheimer, But The Two Movies Have Continued To Be A Paired Success
Let's be real: Barbenheimer should be recognized as a once-in-a-lifetime box office event. Studios may continue for years to try and design blockbuster counterprogramming pairs that can find success in tandem, but no combination of titles is ever going to match the buzz and earnings that came out of the simultaneous release of Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer.
All that being said, Glicked is still turning out to be a solid win for the big screen experience.
When Wicked and Ridley Scott's Gladiator II arrived in theaters in late November, their combined box office earnings totaled about $168 million domestically in just three days, and while Moana 2 has unquestionably been substantial competition, both titles have continued to have strong runs. Their pooled domestic ticket sales now total $453.3 million, and they have together made about $824 million worldwide.
That's not quite Barbenheimer money (Oppenheimer, the lower grossing of the pair, finished its time on the big screen making $976.8 million globally), but there is expectation that the 2024 blockbusters will continue to be substantial presences in the Top 10 through the rest of the year.
Independently, it can also be noted that (without accounting for inflation) Gladiator II is outpacing its 2000 predecessor at the box office. The Best Picture winner starring Russell Crowe made $451.7 million by the time it left theaters (what ended up being a 50-week run), and the long-awaited sequel is getting closer and closer to that figure, having made $368.4 million to date.
How will the current Top 10 be affected with the arrival of J.C. Chandor's Kraven The Hunter and Kenji Kamiyama's The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim this Friday? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see the box office results, and in the meantime, you can check out our 2024 Movie Release Calendar to plan your own theatrical excursions in what remains of the year.
