Moana 2 Box Office Passes Another Major Milestone, Increasing Its Chances Of Hitting $1 Billion

Moana 2 has hit a milestone that cements it as a record-breaking hit. The movie is a sequel to Disney’s 2016 animated hit and follows the title character (Auli’i Cravalho) amassing a crew and going on a new adventure with the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson). The voice cast also includes Hualālai Chung, Rose Matafeo, David Fane, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House, and Alan Tudyk. The Moana 2 release kicked off the day before U.S. Thanksgiving, climbing to a whopping $139.8 million domestic debut that weekend.

Per Variety, Moana 2 has already reached a total of $882.5 million at the worldwide box office. In addition to passing the $850 million milestone, which is something that only 92 other movies have done in cinema history, the movie is expected to pass the $1 billion milestone worldwide in early 2025. This would make it the fourth Walt Disney Animation Studios movie to ever reach that staggering height, after Zootopia ($1.02 billion), Frozen ($1.29 billion), and Frozen II ($1.45 billion).

What This Means For Moana 2

The Movie Is In Rarefied Air

Even without reaching $1 billion, the new Disney movie has already cemented itself as a bona fide smash hit. The Moana 2 budget is reportedly $150 million, which most likely means that its break-even point was somewhere around $375 million, a total that it has long since surged past. However, if it reaches $1 billion as expected, it will enter even more rarefied air.

Because theaters keep half of ticket sales and marketing costs aren’t factored into production budgets, movies generally have to earn at least two and a half times their price tags in order to break even.

Between its wide variety of brands, which now include 20th Century Studios, Marvel Studios, and Pixar, Disney has amassed a long list of billion-dollar releases ranging from the 2016 Pixar sequel Finding Dory ($1.025 billion) to the 2024 smash Inside Out 2 ($1.698 billion). They also have several $2 billion hits, namely the Lucasfilm outing Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens ($2.056 billion) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe crossovers Avengers: Infinity War ($2.048) and Avengers: Endgame ($2.748 billion). Nevertheless, Moana 2 would still only mark the company’s 28th billion-dollar hit overall.

Our Take On The Moana 2 Box Office

Its Success Should Not Be Taken For Granted

The fact that $1 billion is within the movie’s reach is even more astounding when considering the fact that Moana 2 was originally going to be a Disney+ show. The studio’s decision to change it to a theatrical feature has clearly paid massive dividends and could potentially lead to a major shift in how they approach development on their exclusive streaming properties moving forward, at least when they are related to some of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ most important theatrical IP.

Enjoy Screen Rant’s box office coverage? Click below to sign up for my weekly box office newsletter (make sure to check “Box Office” in your preferences) and get exclusive analysis, predictions, and more:

Sign Up

Source: Variety