‘Moana’ cruises with $81.1M Thanksgiving weekend

It also notched the third-largest three-day Thanksgiving opening of all time, with an estimated $55.5 million, according to Box Office Mojo. The story about Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) and her companion, the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), has so far brought in even better reviews than Disney box office juggernaut “Frozen”, which opened on Thanksgiving weekend as well in 2013. “In that department, and innumerable others, “Moana” is the real deal”.

“Each of [Disney’s top performers] had Rotten Tomatoes scores in the 90% range, each of them had CinemaScores that were As”. It’s that good, an nearly ideal Disney film. Fantastic Beasts has now made a total of $473.7 million globally, ranking 13th among all of 2016 releases.

The good? New release “Moana” debuts as a convincing #1. Also of note is Doctor Strange, which pulled in another $5.4 million. It should pass Thor: The Dark World for ninth all-time among MCU films by next week.

Fourth place, with just US$13 million, went to the debut movie Allied, starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard as World War II spies who fall in love during an assassination mission and eventually get married and have a child, but then become pitted against each other. Its opening is one of the worst ever recorded for a movie that debuted on more than 2,000 screens.

Disney threw their latest film hoping to hit the heights of Frozen at U.S. audiences this weekend in the shape of Moana, they are hoping that the long holiday weekend would give it a boost.

“Their stuff is so good right now and connecting with audiences”, says Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations, who points to Disney’s spring hit Zootopia and 2014’s Big Hero 6. “Arrival” (#5, $11.3 million over three days for a cume of $62.4 million). “I’d rather see a group of great movies maybe not breaking a record than a group of awful movies breaking records left and right”. The fantasy adventure has earned $156.2 million in two weeks of release.

And Warren Beatty’s “Rules Don’t Apply“, hampered by mixed reviews, disappointed with $2.1 million over five days in theaters. “Allied” is leaning on the star power of its cast, but those marketing efforts were hampered by Mr. Pitt’s headline-grabbing divorce from Angelina Jolie, which prevented as much publicity for the film as usual.