For Good’ lead Thanksgiving box office
Disney’s “Zootopia 2” follows detectives Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde as they find themselves on the winding trail of a mysterious reptile that is wreaking havoc on the mammalian metropolis of Zootopia.
Disney
Moviegoers have plenty to feast on at the box office this Thanksgiving.
Disney’s “Zootopia 2” grossed $10.2 million in previews Tuesday, making it Disney Animation Studios’ second-highest-grossing movie ever, behind last year’s “Moana 2,” which grossed $13.8 million. This is the eighth highest preview for an animated film of all time.
Box office analysts expect the film to earn between $135 million and $150 million during the five-day Thanksgiving period. Although that’s well below the $225.4 million that “Moana 2” brought in during the same period last year, it’s a welcome jolt for a box office that’s struggled to increase ticket sales over the past few months.
Also in the mix Universal’s “Wicked: For Good,” which grossed $147 million in its opening last week, is expected to earn between $80 million and $100 million during the five-day holiday. That figure may be higher considering last year’s “Wicked” earned $118 million around Thanksgiving after debuting to $112.5 million the same pre-Thanksgiving weekend.
“The Thanksgiving holiday is one of the most important movie seasons of the year, and it’s off to a flying start with ‘Wicked: For Good’ outperforming, delivering an impressive five-day box office revenue in the $300 million range in theaters,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of market trends at Comscore. “‘Zootopia 2’ has a great release date, internal brand awareness, and a revenue-boosting PG rating, which is a big plus.”
Thanksgiving this year faces tough comparisons after “Moana 2,” “Wicked” and “Gladiater II” earned a record-breaking $424.9 million in domestic five-day revenue for the 2024 holiday. Previously, the highest-grossing Thanksgiving haul was $315.6 million in 2018, according to data from Comscore.
“While that record is in no danger of being broken, it will still be a solid Thanksgiving holiday corridor for movie theaters this year and will likely rank among the top five best-performing frames of all time,” Dergarabedian said.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become CNBC’s new parent company, based on Comcast’s planned Versant spinoff.
