‘Moana 2’ on Course to Hit $1 Billion; ‘Mufasa’ & ‘Sonic 3’ Reach Milestones

Animation had a boffo international box office weekend, with the fully-animated Disney pic Moana 2 on track to pass $1 billion this week. The seafaring sequel helmed by Jason Hand, David Derrick Jr. and Dana Ledoux Miller added $11.1 million to its overseas cume of $554.9M, bringing its worldwide total to $989.8M. Moana 2 will mark Disney’s third 2024 release to hit the billion-dollar mark, as the only studio with any big B movies for the year.

Notably, Moana 2 is the second-highest grossing animated movie ever in Brazil and France, and the highest-grossing Disney Animation release of all time in France, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Latin America, Greece, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey, U.A.E., New Zealand, Peru, Chile, Central America, Ecuador, Bolivia and Uruguay.

The sequel’s top markets to date are France ($60.6M), U.K. ($49.7M), Germany ($41.7M), Mexico ($30.2M) and Australia ($29.5M).

The CG stars of hybrid movies boosted the global box office as well. Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King picked up $27.9M this weekend for an international total of $350.9M and $539.7M worldwide (the No. 9 release of 2024. Top international markets so far are France ($33.7M), U.K. ($29.9M), Mexico ($24.6M), Germany ($24M) and Italy ($21.8M).

And Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is no slowpoke for the blockbuster SEGA-inspired film series. The Blue Blur collected another $20.3M from 62 overseas markets this weekend, racing to an international cume of $180.3M and $384.8M worldwide.

Top markets are the U.K. ($25.9M), Mexico ($18.8M), France ($15.8M), Australia ($13.2M) and Brazil ($9.2M).