Moana 2 Broke An Astonishing Box Office Record Set By The Super Mario Bros. Movie

"Moana 2" is a smash hit, leading the biggest Thanksgiving ever at the box office, leaving the record set by "Frozen II" in the dust, and coming out a long way ahead of runner-ups "Wicked" and "Gladiator II." Maybe instead of sharks, Ridley Scott should have added a chicken and a pig to the colosseum.

Granted, it wasn't hard to imagine "Moana 2" being a gigantic box office hit; the original film was the most-streamed movie across any platform back in 2023. Nevertheless, it's astonishing to remember that "Moana 2" was originally envisioned as a streaming Disney+ series instead of a big-screen feature.

"Moana 2" follows Moana as she receives a call from her ancestors to find a lost island that has the power to connect all the peoples of Oceania, and defeat the malevolent god that cursed the island and keeps humans separated. Even if it does feel painfully obvious in the pacing that this was once a series condensed into a feature film, this is nevertheless a fantastic, powerful, fun sequel with broad appeal.

Clearly, audiences are responding. In yet another sign that animation is always here to save Hollywood (despite the industry continuing to undermine the medium and its workers). "Moana 2" just broke the record for the biggest global opening of all time for an animated film with $389 million over the five-day holiday frame. The previous holder was none other than last year's "Super Mario Bros. Movie," which had a massive $377 million five-day global opening. Given that "Mario" ended up with almost a billion and a half dollars worldwide, it seems the answer to "How far [Moana]'ll go" is to the bank, with a giant bag full of cash. 

"Moana 2" and "Inside Out 2" being such huge hits this year does send a signal to Disney that they should probably stick to safe bets and just make sequels rather than produce original movies (like, well, "Inside Out" and "Moana"). We're already seeing this happening in the recent news that Disney and Pixar are doubling down on sequels, and truly, there is little incentive for them to do original features when sequels do so well.

Then there's the fact that "Moana" was initially planned as a series. There's nothing inherently bad with this, of course, and the film does look as good as the original — which was part of the appeal and promise of Disney+ animated shows, that they'd use the same resources and assets as Pixar and Disney features. Except, even if the assets are the same, the crews are not. For instance, "Moana 2" was animated at Walt Disney Animation Studios' Vancouver studio rather than at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California. 

Sure, maestro and veteran Eric Goldberg supervised a team of animators that worked on Maui's tattoos, just like he supervised the animation for it in the first film, and the Burbank studio reportedly had a lot of input. Still, the gargantuan success of the film may inspire Disney to outsource more movies going forward. It wouldn't be the first studio to do so. After all, it was reported last year that DreamWorks would shift away from producing movies in-house and instead outsource its animation in a cost-cutting measure, with Canada-based Sony Pictures ImageWorks now acting as its new production partner.

This is significant because Sony ImageWorks is a non-union company (unlike Sony Pictures Animation), and while Walt Disney animators voted to unionize in 2023 for the first time, the Vancouver studio is not unionized. At a difficult time for animation workers, a time when the Animation Guild is fighting for basic rights for its members, and after everything the industry went through with the double strikes of 2023, this is a dangerous move for a medium that consistently saves the box office, but doesn't get anywhere near the same treatment or respect as live-action.

/Film editor Ben Pearson broke down some of the numbers on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which you can listen to below:

You can subscribe to /Film Daily on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and send your feedback, questions, comments, concerns, and mailbag topics to us at bpearson@slashfilm.com. Please leave your name and general geographic location in case we mention your e-mail on the air.