“Wicked,” “Gladiator II” and “Moana 2” achieve historic Thanksgiving box office success

• “Wicked,” “Gladiator II” and “Moana 2” hit theaters this Thanksgiving weekend.

• The three films could bring in more box office than pre-pandemic Thanksgiving weekends.

• “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” were released in theaters on November 22nd and “Moana 2” premiered on November 27th.

This Thanksgiving box office lineup will be the most successful of the post-pandemic era — and could be one of the most successful in history.

It started on November 22nd when “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” premiered in theaters.

“Wicked,” directed by Jon M. Chu, is based on one of Broadway’s longest-running shows. Fans have been looking forward to the film adaptation since the musical first came to the stage in 2003.

Gladiator II is a sequel to the original 2000 film.

The films topped their opening weekend at the box office. “Gladiator II” grossed $106 million in ticket sales, while “Wicked” brought in $164 million. “Wicked” also had a higher opening weekend than any other film based on a Broadway show.

“Moana 2,” the sequel to the 2016 Disney film, hit theaters on November 27 – the first day of the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. It is projected to gross between $135 million and $145 million, per Variety.

In 2016, “Moana” was the top box office performer over Thanksgiving weekend with $81 million in ticket sales.

“The trifecta of ‘Moana 2,’ ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’ is truly a perfect storm for theaters this Thanksgiving,” Fandango Analytics director and Box Office Theory founder Shawn Robbins told CNBC. He predicted Thanksgiving weekend 2024 box office receipts would surpass 2019’s $200 million – and be among the most lucrative in cinema history.

“Holidays used to be a regular occurrence of big releases that would align with the entire audience, but that has been a challenge for the industry in the post-pandemic era,” he told CNBC. “This year is very different, with such a holy trinity of tentpole releases that could deliver some of the biggest all-around box office returns the holiday framework has ever seen.”

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