While the firstMoanafilm was a huge success in itself,Moana 2managed to surpass the beloved original movie at the box office. The film is a direct sequel to 2016’s Polynesian Disney adventure, which saw the titular character journey into the reaches of the Pacific Ocean in search of a mythological treasure that could help restore her island to its former glory. It quickly proved itself to be among thebest Disney releases of the 21st century, andMoana 2’s commercial performance exceeded even those high benchmarks.
Moana 2picks up briefly after the original’s conclusion, as the young protagonist teams up with the demigod Maui once again for another journey into the oceans — this time, answering a mysterious call that seems to be coming from her family’s ancestors.Just like the original, it’s a powerful story of self-acceptance and legacythat embodies all the bold storytelling and catchy music that audiences have come to expect from this series.Moana 2introduces new gods and demigodsto increase the scale of this narrative even further, which clearly had audiences across the world intrigued.
Moana 2’s Total Box Office
The Disney Sequel Was A Hit For The Studio
By the end of its box office run,Moana 2became the third-highest-grossing 2024 release worldwide with almost $1.06 billion earned. That also makes it one of only three 2024 movies that surpassed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, with the other two beingInside Out 2andDeadpool & Wolverine. According toBox Office Mojo,Moana 2grossed over $460 million in the United States. It went on to perform even better in the international markets, making an additional $597 million.
Moana 2 Foreshadowed Its Big Demigod Twist With A Minor Detail That Surprised Maui
Moana 2 subtly foreshadows its demigod twist by having Moana accomplish a feat no human should be able to and beating Maui in the process.
These stats are extremely impressive forMoana 2, although not altogether surprising. There was a huge amount of excitement and anticipation for this release, partly because of its status as a Disney film and partly because of the reputation of the original movie that preceded it. The sequel was a recipe for success, and its box office figures seem to prove that.Moana 2’s massive box office openingmarks one of the year’s biggest commercial successes, proving that people showed up on opening day and the word-of-mouth stayed strong.
Moana 2’s Opening Weekend Box Office
The Sequel Outperformed The Original On The Opening Weekend
The true indicator of any film’s box office draw is the opening weekend numbers, which were just as impressive forMoana 2as the film’s creatives could’ve hoped.The movie pulled in $139 million across the first few days, almost doubling this figure in the week that followed. These are huge numbers for any film, but they’re even more important for an animated sequel to a movie that’s already eight years old.
Before the release ofMoana 2, there wasn’t that much excitement surrounding this Disney property — it was hugely successful when the first movie was released in 2016, but in the years that followed, there hasn’t been an overwhelming demand for a sequel. This had many fans understandably worried thatMoana 2wouldn’t perform as well as expected at the box office, but the film immediately crushed those worries and proved itself more lucrative than the original.
Moana 2 Box Office Records Explained
The Film Has Broken Some Long-Standing Disney Records
As per Disney and Comscore (viaTHR), there have been several long-standing box office records thatMoana 2has broken. The first record pertains to the film’s Thanksgiving release, and states thatMoana 2has secured the best five-day Thanksgiving opening of all time, including movies that were released in the weeks before Thanksgiving weekend. This is huge news forMoana 2and the future of the franchise, as Thanksgiving is famously a very important and competitive holiday for the film industry.
The sequel also broke the record for the biggest global opening ever for an animated movie, which is evidently a huge accomplishment.
BeforeMoana 2’s release, it was another Disney property that held some of the most important box office records.Frozen 2previously had the biggest Black Friday gross of all time, the biggest Thanksgiving gross of all time, and the biggest opening day gross for a Disney animated movie. Now,all of these records belong toMoana 2. The sequel also broke the record for the biggest global opening ever for an animated movie.
How Moana 2’s Box Office Compares To 2016’s Moana
The Sequel Has Lived Up To The Original
While discussingMoana 2’s impressive box office performance, it’s important to understand how this compares to the commercial success of the first movie.Moanawas another huge success at the time of release in 2016, thoughits opening weekend wasn’t quite as impressive as the sequel’s— the first film gathered $56 million over the first few days.Moanalater accumulated $248 million in the United States and $394 million in the rest of the world, resulting in an international gross of $643 million.
These are huge figures for an animated movie, butMoana 2far surpassed them. Its opening weekend was almost three times larger than the first movie’s, and the sequel took in over $300 million more than its predecessor internationally, which is an astounding accomplishment. WhileMoana 2fell short of beingthe next Disney film to break the $1.6 billion recordcurrently held byInside Out 2,it certainly came close.
How Moana 2’s Box Office Compares To 2024’s Other Animated Movies
Moana 2 Was Among 2024’s Biggest Animated Hits
While it’s important to understandMoana 2’s success in relation to the first film, it’s arguably even more relevant to consider the film’s huge box office accomplishment in comparison to other animated movies from 2024.Moana 2was able to surpass another popular animation franchise, beatingDespicable Me 4’s $969 million gross to becomethe second-highest-grossing animated movie of 2024. It only remains behind fellow Disney projectInside Out 2at $1.7 million.
The huge success ofMoana 2is an excellent sign for the future of the franchise, withthe possibility ofMoana 3increasing steadily as a result. There’s so much love for this Disney franchise, and the fact that it managed to outperform movies such asWickedandDune: Part Twolast year at the worldwide box office just proves how popular it is.Moana 3would surely be an intelligent decision from the studio at this rate.
What Moana 2’s Box Office Means For Disney & The Franchise’s Future
The Company Must Learn The Right Lesson From Moana 2’s Success
Ultimately, the incredible success of bothMoana 2andInside Out 2is a shining beacon to Disney thatthere’s plenty of room in today’s cinematic climate for creative sequelsto their most beloved releases. This is a trend that Disney has been strongly capitalizing on recently, with the company focusing much of its time and resources on sequels, remakes, and reboots of their original properties that audiences already know and love.
While several of these sequels and remakes have been great, they also run the risk of being cheap nostalgia trips that lack original ideas and merely rehash old ones. But unfortunately, this could be a gloomy vision of the company’s future if they learn the wrong lessons from the success ofInside Out 2andMoana 2. These films didn’t just succeed because they’re familiar sequels, but rather because of the creative storytelling and beautiful visual styles that they adopt.
Where Moana 2’s Box Office Ranks All Time For Animated Movies
Moana 2 Stands High Among The Genre Hits
Moana 2’s box office has been impressive by 2024 standards, but even compared to all of the animated movies of all time, it has made a huge impact. The sequel currently ranks as the11th highest-grossing animated movie of all timeat the worldwide box office. Notably,Moana 2was kept out of the top 10 by a movie that came out even more recently. The Chinese animated movieNe Zha 2’s box officenot only surpassedMoana 2but went on to become the highest-grossing animated movie of all time with over $2 billion.
When it comes to domestic box office results,Moana 2is the seventh-highest-grossing animated movie of all time. Also, with only two entries, theMoanamovies make up the 15th highest-grossing animated movie franchise.
Moana 2
Cast
Moana 2 is the sequel to the 2016 animated film Moana. Directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller, the film continues the journey of Moana as she embarks on new adventures, exploring the vast Pacific Ocean while encountering new characters and challenges along the way.
