Despite sailing into its release on choppy waves of critical reviews, the hotly anticipated sequel Moana 2 has already made a major splash going into Thanksgiving weekend. In fact, industry watchers believe the pic will outgross current No. 1 animated movie of all time, Inside Out 2 (Pixar/Disney), which opened in June and has amassed a worldwide gross of $1.7 billion.
The new CG musical adventure trawled through previews at a clip, scooping up $13.8 million — the best ever Tuesday-before-Thanksgiving take for an animated feature from the studio (blowing Ralph Breaks the Internet‘s $3.8M out of the water) and the second-highest preview take for an animated feature ever, behind Incredibles 2 ($18.5M) and ahead of Inside Out 2 ($13M), Toy Story 4 ($12M) and Frozen II ($8.5M).
Moana 2 received a tepid reception from critics, who couldn’t help comparing the series-turned-feature return to ancient Oceania (directed by the team of David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller) to the Oscar-winning 2016 original. While the film scored a less than amazing 67% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, the audience Popcornmeter is reading at 88%.
According to RelishMix, the sequel’s success is being predictably driven by fan nostalgia for Moana, judging by the internet chatter. Moana 2‘s online marketing, fueled by the social media reach of voice stars Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson, has powered to 633.4M across TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and X, per the monitoring firm.
Moana 2 has a day-and-date official global release today. The film is expected to make more than $225 million worldwide in its opening weekend.
[Source: Deadline]
