Moana 2 and Wicked lead the box office again over the biggest post-Thanksgiving weekend in history

As usual for a post-Thanksgiving weekend, all the holdovers at the domestic marketplace had hefty 50+% drops. That's what happens when people rush out to see movies over a big holiday weekend and then get distracted with preparations for big December events the following frame. However, the sheer size of Thanksgiving 2024's hits ensured that this was still the biggest post-Thanksgiving box office frame ever. It didn't hurt that there was a tidal wave of new wide releases reminding audiences that there's always something new at their local multiplex. How big was this weekend? It was the first time in history a movie grossed $35+ million over this timeframe!

That honor belongs to Moana 2, which grossed another $52 million this frame. A 63% decline from its three-day opening weekend, that’s a heftier post-Thanksgiving decline than Ralph Breaks the Internet, Frozen II, or the first Moana. It’s also bigger than the post-Thanksgiving drops of Wish and The Good Dinosaur, previously the only modern (read: post-Chicken Little) Disney Animation titles to plummet 60+%  over the post-Thanksgiving frame.

 Nobody at Disney is complaining, though, since Moana 2 has made a massive $300 million after just 12 days of release. Since Moana 2 won't have any trouble holding onto its screens through New Year's, the sky's really the limit for how high this goes. $500+ million domestically isn't even out of the question as a final destination for this smash hit.

Wicked also continued its robust domestic box office run this weekend grossing $34.85 million, a 58% drop from last weekend. That's a much better third-weekend hold than most other fantasy blockbusters opened the weekend before Thanksgiving. Catching Fire suffered a 65% post-Thanksgiving plummet, while its two sequels had 61+% drops. The first two Fantastic Beasts movies dropped in the 59-61% range, while the two Breaking Dawn movies each dropped 60%.  Wicked's decline, meanwhile, is on par with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Holdovers, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, and Big Hero 6. All these stats will surely help you get laid at your next New Year’s Eve party.

After 17 days of release, Wicked’s now grossed a whopping $320.5 million. Like Moana 2, Wicked is also very clearly not going anywhere once a deluge of Christmas new releases rolls around. At the very least, it should be able to reach $430 million domestically. Both Moana 2 and Wicked join Frozen II’s $35 million third weekend haul as the three biggest single weekend grosses ever over the post-Thanksgiving frame. Only once before this weekend has a movie enjoyed a $34+ million gross in this corridor. This is what happens when multiple crowd-pleaser movies are in the marketplace.

Next up at the box office was Gladiator II with $12.4 million and a $132.7 million domestic total. Not too shabby numbers for a modern historical epic. Fellow November 2024 holdover Red One was next, easing 45% to gross another $7 million. With $85.7 million in the bank so far, this one will probably limp past $100 million domestically in its lifetime run. Rounding out the top five was the latest blockbuster from India and the weekend’s biggest new wide release, Pushpa 2: The Rule. Opening to $5.9 million over the three-day frame, it's now grossed $10.5 million in its first four days of domestic play. Truly remarkable numbers!

Interstellar came roaring back to 165 IMAX locations this weekend and boy do it astonish. Grossing $4.4 million this weekend, Interstellar scored a whopping $27,000 per theater average. My local Cinemark in Dallas added a 2:00 AM IMAX 70mm show just to satisfy demand! These fantastic numbers bring this 2014 Christopher Nolan movie up to a lifetime domestic cume of $192.4 million. Between this and that lucrative Coraline re-release in August, there’s clearly a thriving market for certain theatrical reissues of beloved movies.

This post-Thanksgiving weekend saw a deluge of new wide releases trying to leave a mark at the box office. Seriously, this was a crowded frame, by my count, there were SEVEN new wide releases (plus a music documentary that barely missed wide release playing in 594 theaters). That’s a sharp contrast to many post-Thanksgiving frames (like in 2011 and 2018) that studios big and small totally abandoned.

The second-biggest of these fresh wide releases (behind Pushpa 2) was the latest anime feature opening in 600+ locations, Solo Leveling -ReAwakening which grossed a decent $2.4 million at 846 theaters for a $2,837 per theater average. Significantly more disappointing was Y2K, the Kyle Mooney directorial effort released by A24. It opened to just $2.11 million from 2,108 locations for a dismal $1,003 per theater average. The only 2024 movie opening in 2,000+ locations to have a worse debut was fellow horror movie The Front Room had a worse launch in 2,000 theaters.

Despite some cute viral videos released the week of its release, Y2K was always doomed to underperform. The film’s muted buzz out of its SXSW 2024 premiere already set an ominous tone for the feature that it couldn’t evade. Meanwhile, A24 spent most of its marketing muscle on the November 2024 horror feature Heretic, which had a more accessible premise and a bigger star (Hugh Grant). Some of Y2K’s marketing was also a tad puzzling, such as its only poster until three weeks before its release lacking any of its young leads. Without either a concrete human element or euphoric reviews to draw in viewers, Y2K was always going to struggle to break out in the challenging horror/comedy realm…though this is still an incredibly rough opening. Somebody put Rachel Zegler in a hit movie star, she’s a movie star who deserves better than these bombs and the internet’s ceaseless harassment (oh no, she criticized Nazi-enablers on social media, how cruel!)

For King + Country: A Drummer Boy Christmas, a Christian movie concert from Fathom Events, opened to $2.05 million over the three-day frame and grossed $2.6 million since its Thursday launch. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever fell 53% and grossed another $1.52 million for a $34.49 million domestic haul. $40 million now looks out of reach for this family comedy, but this is still a decent haul. Our next new wide release (told ya there were a lot of them!) was Werewolves, which opened to only $1.1 million from 1,351 theaters for an $814 per theater average. We need as many movies as possible on the big screen, so it's a good thing distributor Briarcliff Entertainment is putting out more wide releases. However, they've got to get better at marketing and launching these titles.

Next up was The Order, which grossed $878,000 from 603 locations for a middling $1,456 per theater average. That's a poor result for a Jude Law movie debuting in wide release. However, considering distributor Vertical Entertainment has only ever had seven movies hit $1+ million domestically, it could've been worse. The Order will also ensure that 2024 becomes the first year Vertical cracks $10+ million domestically for an entire year at the domestic box office.

Do you want music-based documentaries? You got music-based documentaries! Laufey’s A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl opened to $844,976 from just 144 theaters for a fantastic $6,353 per theater average. RM: Right People, Wrong Place opened to $598,000 from 594 theaters for a middling $1,007 per theater average. Pre-Thanksgiving release Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin fell a colossal 76% this weekend, making it only the fifth wide release in history to drop 75+% over the post-Thanksgiving frame. It grossed just $556,570 from 945 theaters (for a dismal $589 per theater average) and an $11.2 million 17-day domestic total.

Flow expanded to 375 locations this frame, by far the widest Janus Films release that I'm aware of. It grossed $528,000 for a $1,408 per theater average and a $633,337 lifetime domestic gross. It now stands as the fourth-biggest Janus Films release ever. Queer, meanwhile, expanded into 47 locations and grossed $405,910 for an $8,636 per theater average. It's now grossed $866,523 domestically and expands into wider release on Friday.

Bleecker Street's bizarre incompetence with launching a new wide release continues. The Return, a Ralph Fiennes/Juliette Binoche retelling of The Odyssey, only opened to $354,585 from 629 theaters for a $564 per theater average. One of the worst wide-release launches of 2024, this can be entirely chalked up to Bleecker Street's abysmal marketing campaign. The studio only launched the first proper The Return trailer three weeks ago! Bleecker Street can proudly proclaim ownership of many of the year's worst wide-release openings, including Rumours, Treasure, Slingshot, and now The Return.

A Real Pain lost another 285 locations this weekend and grossed $291,000 for a $1,323 per theater average and a $6.65 million domestic total. Fellow award season 2024-2025 darling Anora fell 52% this frame to gross another $186,000 for a $13.1 million domestic total. Another month, another IFC Films horror film failed to leave a mark. Get Away opened to 474 locations but only grossed $101,999 for an atrocious $215 per theater average. IFC and Shudder seriously need to recalibrate how they launch these horror movies despite the success of Late Night with the Devil and In a Violent Nature earlier this year.

In its fourth weekend of domestic release, All We Imagine as Light lost two theaters and eased 38%, not bad for a post-Thanksgiving decline. It grossed another $39,300 for a $324,414 domestic haul. Janus Films is playing the long game on this acclaimed title and so far it's working. Paul Schrader's Oh, Canada launched to $33,257 from three locations this weekend for $11,086 per theater, one of the better domestic launches for distributor Kino Lorber in recent years.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig grossed $25,662 (a 27% dip from last weekend) from five locations for a $5,132 per theater average and a $96,512 12-day domestic total. Fellow Neon release The End debuted to poor numbers this weekend, grossing just $22,747 from three locations for a $7,582 per theater average. The Girl With the Needle also bowed this frame, grossing $11,488 from two locations for a $5,744 per theater average.

One final note: this weekend, Marielle Heller's Amy Adams movie Nightbitch debuted in theaters. Disney/Searchlight Pictures is not reporting grosses for it. Can we please do something to stop this terrible practice of not reporting box office grosses? It just incentivizes the biggest studios (see: Warner Bros. with Juror No. 2) to dump new release movies and is only done to bolster a studio's image rather than for any artistic merit. It's absolutely ridiculous that this data is being kept from people. Anytime corporations try to minimize transparency, that's a red flag, not to mention a deeply disappointing ending to the Nightbitch saga. First, it got upgraded from a Hulu launch to a theatrical release...now Disney's burying it. As I said last week, Disney owning an arthouse studio like Searchlight Pictures continues to be a massive problem. It continues to be a terrible proposition for audiences, filmmakers, and theater owners alike.

The top ten movies this weekend grossed an astonishing $123 million, by far the biggest post-Thanksgiving frame in history. That was inevitable simply through Moana 2's status as the first Thanksgiving newcomer in history opening over $70 million domestically. When you open that big, it's going to have a positive rising tide effect on the marketplace. Still, this weekend's sum is truly impressive and isn't just because of Moana 2. Wicked, Gladiator II, Pushpa 2, Red One, and Interstellar all pulled their fair share to make this a weekend for the record books.

Next weekend see’s the arrival of two new releases, Kraven the Hunter and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, that are unlikely to make significant waves at the box office. However, these November 2024 holdovers should have enough juice to propel the marketplace to one more solid weekend before Christmas 2024 newcomers like Mufasa: The Lion King, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and A Complete Unknown arrive. December 2024 promises to end the year on a high note and ,as of this juncture, clearing $1+ billion for the entire month isn’t out of the question. That would easily make December 2024 the biggest December since COVID shut down theaters in March 2020. Movie theaters, y’all, they’re here to stay. Sorry Netflix CEO’s.