Thanksgiving Box Office Proves This About Family-Friendly Movies
By Movieguide® Contributor
Several new movies hit theaters this past week, but MOANA 2 shows just “how far” family-friendly films can go.
MOANA 2 reached $221 million in ticket sales during the five-day weekend. The Guardian reported the movie “added $165.3m internationally; with $386m worldwide, it’s the second-best global launch of the year.”
The movie follows the heroine of the first installment “After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors.”
“Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced,” IMDB’s synopsis reads.
The film ranked first with admissions as well, hitting 17.4 million people over the long weekend, followed by 8.7 million for WICKED and 3.3 million for GLADIATOR II.
MOANA 2 is the most family-friendly of the three. WICKED received a -2 content score from Movieguide® due to light violence and sexual content, and GLADIATOR II received a -2 score due to language, violence and nudity. MOANA 2, meanwhile, received a -1, making it the most family-friendly of the three. This score was due to light violence and nudity.
MOANA 2 is an animated comical fantasy with funny, thrilling and touching moments. There are some scary looking creatures and situations, but they aren’t super intense. MOANA 2 has a strong morally uplifting, conservative premise of bringing disparate people together into one kingdom, a version of E Pluribus Unum, Out of Many One. However, this is mixed with some polytheistic content and scenes where the heroine interacts with her people’s ancestors.
READ MORE: MOANA 2 REVIEW
Movieguide® isn’t surprised at MOANA 2’s performance; family-friendly movies tend to do better at the box office.
“Based on Movieguide®’s analysis of 170 theatrical movies released nationally [in 2023], ‘family-friendly movies reflecting strong Christian, redemptive, moral, biblical, traditional, or conservative principles and values usually do significantly better at the box office in the United States and Canada than those movies that don’t have such strong content,'” Movieguide® said.
“The evidence is abundantly clear,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide®. “Moviegoers greatly prefer family-friendly movies.”
READ MORE: 80% OF 2023’S TOP 25 MOVIES PROMOTED BIBLICAL, MORAL CONTENT
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