Can These 3 Movies Jumpstart Fall Box Office Numbers?
By Movieguide® Contributor
Hollywood is looking to three highly anticipated movies with the potential to jumpstart a slow season at the box office.
“The industry is looking at WICKED, GLADIATOR II, and MOANA 2 as a Holy Trinity of moviegoing,” Shawn Robbins, Fandango’s director of movie analytics, told Variety. “It’s hard to recall a Thanksgiving lineup with this much potential.”
All three movies have high box office projections — Deadline shared that “Universal’s WICKED and Paramount’s GLADIATOR II just hit tracking with respective openings of $80M+ and $65M,” adding that “both have potential for upside.”
MOANA 2 is also expected to perform well at the box office, with Variety writing that it’s “likely targeting above $100 million for the five days.”
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the sequel to the popular Disney movie “set records…in terms of first-day advance ticket sales,” adding, “It sold more tickets than any other 2024 animated film, including fellow Disney/Pixar summer 2024 blockbuster INSIDE OUT 2.”
That isn’t the only record MOANA 2 has broken.
READ MORE: MOANA 2 BREAKS RECORDS: MOST WATCHED DISNEY ANIMATED TRAILER AT 178M VIEWS
Studio and movie theater execs are in agreement about this Thanksgiving drawing in major box office numbers.
“There’s a lack of momentum going into Thanksgiving, but the marketplace works when there’s something for everyone — and this Thanksgiving there’s something for everyone,” Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution for Paramount, told Variety.
Chris Randleman, chief revenue officer of the Texas-based Flix Brewhouse cinema chain, explained, “It’s looking like the biggest Thanksgiving we’ve ever had. You can make up a lot of ground very quickly with three big movies.”
This comes after a string of box office flops for many movies that studios thought were a sure thing, including JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX.
READ MORE: JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX BOMBS, AND NOBODY SHOULD BE SURPRISED
