Box Office Battle: ‘Moana 2’ breaks records, wins weekend with $221M

“Box Office Battle” is The Fly’s weekly roundup of what movies topped the weekend’s box office.

Walt Disney’s (DIS) sequel “Moana 2” won the Thanksgiving weekend at the North American box office, opening to $221M for the five days, including $135.3M for the three-day weekend. This makes the film the biggest 5-day debut of all time, the biggest 5-day Thanksgiving earner of all time, and the biggest 5-day Thanksgiving nationwide opening. Overseas, the Disney sequel grossed an estimated $165.3M for a global cume of $386.3M. “Moana 2 has far surpassed our high expectations this weekend and is a testament to the phenomenon that Moana has become,” Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman said in a statement.

BOX OFFICE RUNNER-UPS: Comcast (CMCSA) subsidiary Universal’s “Wicked” placed number 2 with $117.5M for the five-day period. Behind it was Paramount’s (PARA) “Gladiator II” with $44M over the long weekend. Amazon (AMZN) MGM Studios’ Christmas movie “Red One” placed number 4 with another $18.7M from 3,432 locations. Rounding out the top five, Lionsgate’s (LGF.B) “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” earned an estimated $4.9M for the five-day weekend.

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:

1. “Moana 2” – $221M
2. “Wicked” – $117.5M
3. “Gladiator II” – $44M
4. “Red One” – $18.7M
5. “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” – $4.9M

Other publicly traded companies in filmmaking include Sony‘s (SONY), Warner Bros. (WBD), and Apple (AAPL).