Moana Pushes Fantastic Beasts Out of First

Moana, the newest animated musical from Walt Disney Studios, led the Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 25-27) box office with $56.63 million, or $82.08 million if you include its earnings since its Wednesday release. That’s the sixth-highest three-day Thanksgiving weekend of all time, and the 13th-highest when adjusted for inflation. Many of the films ahead of it through the years were fellow Disney releases, as the studio often releases films on Thanksgiving weekend.

Disney’s Moana opened in first place over the Thanksgiving weekend with $ (voice of Auliʻi Cravalho) recruits a demigod named Maui (voice of Dwayne Johnson) to help her become a master wayfinder and sail out on a daring mission to save her people. Directed by the renowned filmmaking team of Ron Clements and John Musker, produced by Osnat Shurer, and featuring music by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa‘i, “Moana” sails into U.S. theaters on Nov. 23, 2016. ©2016 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ fantasy spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them fell 39.4 percent to $45.08 million, or $65.54 million for the extended five-day holiday weekend. Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange dropped 22.6 percent to finish in third with $13.74 million in the three-day and $17.73 million in the five-day pushing it to $205.78 million total so far.

The weekend’s other three new wide releases ranged from average to bad in their debuts, especially given that Thanksgiving is usually one of the biggest movie weekends of the year. Paramount Pictures’ World War II spy thriller Allied began with $12.70 million, or $17.73 million for the five-day. Broad Green Pictures’ holiday comedyBad Santa 2 debuted in a disappointing seventh place with $6.18 million, or $9.10 million for the five-day. And 20th Century Fox’s period drama Rules Don’t Apply, which wasn’t expected to be a huge blockbuster, but was expected to finish in the Top 10, tanked by coming in 11th place with $1.59 million, or $2.18 million for the five-day.

In limited release, Loving and Moonlight both continued their excellent runs so far with a $1.70 million three-day weekend for the former and a $1.22 million three-day weekend for the latter. Weinstein Company’s awards contender Lion started out with $123,360 in only four theaters, while EuropaCorp’s political drama Miss Sloane began with $59,797 in only three theaters.

The top 10 films last weekend earned a cumulative $170.60 million. That’s 1.7 percent above the $167.80 million earned by the top 10 on the same weekend last year, when The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 led for the second straight weekend with $52.00 million. It’s also 16.4 percent above the $146.56 million earned by the top 10 on week ago.