• by Wayne Friedman , December 1, 2024

Walt Disney’s “Moana 2” blew past projections with a record-setting $221.0 million in its U.S./Canada five-day opening over Thanksgiving weekend, according to Comscore.

"Moana 2" is the strongest Thanksgiving box-office release ever, according to industry analysts. The three-day Friday to Sunday period averaged $135 million.

Looking at national TV marketing, Disney placed significant advertising with an overall estimated media value -- paid advertising and on-air promos on Disney-owned TV networks -- of $26.1 million. This came from 5,300 airings, yielding 3.7 billion impressions, according to EDO Ad EnGage.

Major national TV impressions came from the Disney Channel and NFL football (NBC, CBS, Fox, ABC and ESPN).

Not to be outdone, the second week of Universal’s “Wicked” earned another $117.5 million in box-office results over that same five-day period -- totaling $262.4 million domestically. Globally, the movie is at $359.3 million.

“Wicked” is now at an estimated $52 million in national TV media value -- paid advertising and on-air promos on NBCUniversal-owned TV networks.

Also in its second week, Paramount’s “Gladiator II” took in another $30 million to now total $111.2 million domestically. It has placed an estimated $21.0 million in national TV advertising media value (paid, on-air promos) for its entire release so far.

These big holiday movies have dramatically improved overall U.S./Canadian theatrical movie box-office revenue for 2024 -- now at a season-to-date $7.8 billion, just 6.4% behind last year's revenue.

Just a week ago, season-to-date 2024 revenue was down 10.6%, says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore.

This story has been updated.