An unprecedented estimated $420m (£330m) was taken at the US domestic box office over the holiday stretch, trampling over figures from the previous year on record, according to Comscore.
A staggering 30 million people saw the top three charting films at the cinema from Wednesday (27 November) to Sunday (1 December) in what marked a significant bounce back for the box office following 2023’s SAG-AFTRA strikes and the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Disney sequel Moana 2 pulled in 17.4 million moviegoers, Wicked sold 8.7 million tickets, while Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II secured the remaining audience numbers, according to EntTelligence.
This confluence of blockbusters is not normally seen on the cinema roster until late December. However, Christmas has come early for the box office in 2024 with the aligned release of three major movies.
Moana 2 secured $221m (£176m) in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, setting a new record for Thanksgiving moviegoing.
Meanwhile, Wicked showed no signs of slowing down with the Universal Pictures musical bringing in $117m (£91m) over the five-day weekend, pushing its two-week global total to $359m (£271m).
Gladiator II also held well, dipping 44 per cent from its opening weekend, and collected $44m (£35m) over the Thanksgiving break.
Those three films drove the overall box office to more than $400 million in Thanksgiving weekend ticket sales, a record.
Michael O’Leary, president and chief executive of the National Association of Theatre Owners, said the weekend showed what’s possible when “all the pieces of the puzzle come together” in compelling big-budget movies with marketing muscle.
“We’re very optimistic that this weekend is the start of what we believe is a full-on charge into the future,” he said.
“The remaining quarter of this year looks very promising and then on into 2025 and 2026. We’re hoping next year is the first kind of normal year this industry has had in a long time.”
In 2025, Thanksgiving weekend will follow the release of Wicked: Part 2 on the pre-holiday Friday, as well as Edgar Wight’s reboot of The Running Man with Glen Powell and Josh Brolin and Disney’s Zooptopia 2 .
“For a long, long time in Hollywood, there’s been a belief that you don’t put big blockbuster movies up against each other,” said O’Leary.
“But the truth of the matter is that competition is good. It’s good for the movies. It’s good for the studios. It’s good for the theatre owners. But it’s particularly good for the moviegoing public.”
