Moana 2 is riding a strong wave. The highly anticipated sequel about the precocious teenager who encounters magic and other wonders on her adventures at sea made $221 million in its five-day domestic opening. The movie set a new record for Thanksgiving weekend, beating Frozen II, which earned $125 million in 2019.
The movie was joined by other big ticket sellers Wicked and Gladiator II to produce the biggest five-day Thanksgiving weekend box office of all time. Collectively, the three movies earned an estimated $420 million. The previous record was set in 2018 with a $315 million weekend total led by Creed II, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Moana 2 opens with the titular heroine returning home from an adventure with her trusty sidekicks Hei Hei and Pua. She reveals an artifact she found connected to “an ancient island cursed by a power hungry god.” Moana recruits a team to join her as she attempts to break the curse and unite her people once again. Of course, as they face monsters and angry gods, they’ll need a little help from the trickster demigod, Maui.
The sequel saw the return of voice actors Auli’i Cravalho as Moana, Dwayne Johnson as Maui, Alan Tudyk as Hei Hei, Rachel House as Gramma Tala, Temuera Morrison as Chief Tui, and Nicole Scherzinger as Sina. The cast also includes Rose Matafeo, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Hualalai Chung, David Fan, Awhimai Fraser, and Gerald Ramsey.