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Box Office: How ‘Moana 2,’ ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’ Fueled Biggest Thanksgiving on Record


A trio of blockbusters -- 'Moana 2,' 'Wicked' and 'Gladiator 2' -- are fueling a record-breaking Thanksgiving bounty.

It obliterated the previous benchmark of $315 million, set by 2018’s slate of “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” and “Creed II.” Since the pandemic, though, Turkey Day has been all famine and no feast at the box office. Sony’s R-rated comic book adaptation “Kraven the Hunter” and the Warner Bros. animated “Lord of the Rings” spinoff “The War of the Rohirrim” (both on Dec. 13) are two of the only wide releases on the schedule until Christmas. Then, there’s Disney’s “The Lion King” prequel “Mufasa” and Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” (on Dec. 20) and the Focus Features remake of “Nosferatu” (Dec. 25), as well as a smattering of arthouse offerings like A24’s erotic thriller “Babygirl” and Searchlight’s Timothee Chalamet-led Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.” Any of those could surprise, but none are guaranteed billion-dollar behemoths, in the vein of “Avatar,” “Star Wars” or ‘“Spider-Man,” with enough gusto to close out the year and power the first few weeks of 2025.

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