Unless you've been living at the bottom of the sea, you'll already know that Moana 2 is taking theaters by storm. So, what's the secret behind Moana and Maui's box office success?
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00:00Unless you've been living at the bottom of the sea, you'll already know that Moana 2
00:03is taking theaters by storm.
00:06So what's the secret behind Moana and Maui's box office success?
00:10As the holiday approached, it became pretty clear that Moana 2 was going to be a big hit
00:15right out of the gate.
00:16Can I get a chee-hoo?
00:18Pre-sales were running close to those earned by Inside Out 2 earlier in the year, with
00:22the latest Disney flick pulling in $135 million on the day they went on sale.
00:27Those numbers proved to be a promise fulfilled, too, as Moana 2 enjoyed a titanic Thanksgiving
00:33weekend take.
00:34The film promptly broke preview records and marked a Disney Best for Thanksgiving Tuesday,
00:39handily beating 2018's Ralph Breaks the Internet.
00:41Moana 2 earned $13.8 million from its Tuesday showings alone, slightly better than what
00:47Inside Out 2 had pulled in during its previews.
00:50This was a huge and crucial hint that Moana 2 was going to outpace even that movie, becoming
00:55Disney's most successful animated release of the year, and then some.
00:59Bring it on, Coco!
01:02Nuts!
01:03Then came the Thanksgiving weekend box office, and Moana 2 went from strength to strength,
01:08taking in about $225 million domestically from Wednesday through Sunday, and combined
01:14with Gladiator 2 and Wicked, contributed to the largest Thanksgiving weekend box office
01:19in history.
01:20Internationally, Moana 2 made nearly $164 million in total, adding up to a grand worldwide
01:27total of $389 million.
01:30This was the biggest opening for an animated movie ever, besting the Super Mario Bros.
01:35movie's 2023 record of $377 million.
01:39Over the next four weeks, Moana 2 will also find itself within spitting distance of besting
01:44the billion-dollar-plus total that Inside Out 2 pulled during its theatrical run.
01:49Disney often enjoys box office success over the holiday season.
01:52In particular, the company has ruled over the Thanksgiving weekend box office for many
01:57years.
01:58Hits like Frozen, Toy Story 2, Tangled, Coco, and the first Moana all ended up raking in
02:03record amounts of cash on release.
02:05As a matter of fact, Disney films hold nine out of ten of the slots of all-time best film
02:10openings during the season.
02:11Is it any wonder that Moana 2 has joined its predecessors?
02:14The equation is simple.
02:16Disney movies plus family get-togethers equals big, big bucks.
02:21The first Moana movie made nearly $650 million at the worldwide box office, not a sum to
02:26be sniffed at by any measure.
02:28Then when the film hit Disney+, it quickly became the most popular offering on the entire
02:33platform, with fans streaming more than 80 billion minutes of the movie since its debut.
02:37That makes it Disney Plus' most popular streaming movie of all time, and this is some equivalent
02:42of watching Moana all the way through from start to finish 748 million times.
02:48In short, all kinds of kids from all over the world love Moana, and so they inevitably
02:52rushed to theaters when her new movie came out.
02:55Moana 2 is so aware of Moana's popularity among kids, in fact, that it contains an in-joke
03:00about their existence.
03:01The Moana-bies, a group of young girls who dress like her and even have their own pet
03:05pig.
03:06I thought you'd be bigger.
03:07Yeah, like a lot bigger.
03:10Okay.
03:11It's a knowing nod to all of the girls who have come to idolize Moana thanks to her theatrical
03:16and streaming success.
03:17Generally, critics were happy with the second Moana film.
03:21While some complain that the film rehashes too much of the original, over 60 percent
03:25of Rotten Tomatoes-certified critics have given the movie a positive score.
03:29That's way down from the 95 percent freshness rating of the original movie, of course, but
03:33it's still likely enough to convince the curious and the skeptical.
03:37The audience score is much higher, too, which means that moviegoers love the movie more
03:40than the critics.
03:41Moana 2's CinemaScore rating was an A-, which means it may continue to be buoyed by massive
03:46word-of-mouth in the weeks ahead.
03:48Failed it!
03:49And the film definitely needed that reaction.
03:52The Moana 2 marketing campaign led to complaints from fans, who suggested the movie would be
03:56lackluster and compared it unfavorably to Wicked.
04:00But these reviews and word-of-mouth act as a counterblast, clearly benefiting Moana 2
04:04and bolstering its box office performance.
04:06You wanna get through it?
04:08You just gotta chee-hoo it.
04:11Moana boasted some seriously impressive sing-along-friendly hit songs.
04:15From You're Welcome, to How Far I'll Go, to Shiny, these tunes sailed into fans' hearts
04:20thanks to the songwriting talents of Broadway icon Lin-Manuel Miranda.
04:24This time out, Disney chose to bring on some new folks to write the lyrics, while keeping
04:28musicians Mark Mancina and Opetai Fowai, who wrote the music for the original film.
04:33Those lyricists are Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow, who first found fame through their
04:36What If Bridgerton Was a Musical? series off TikTok.
04:39The twosomes' youthful point of view definitely puts a fresh spin on Moana's world.
04:44From the Motown-ready Get Lost to Maui's Big Number, Can I Get a Chee-Hoo, all of the songs
04:49feel fresh, new, and alive in a way that's different from Miranda's work, if not quite
04:54as refined.
04:55Whether you prefer Bear and Barlow's work or not, there's no doubt that Moana 2's music
04:59gives the movie an entirely new identity, one that makes it completely unlike the first
05:03movie and further contributes to the sequel's status as a must-see.
05:08Little kids aren't the only people who have kept the spirit of Moana alive.
05:12Young ones who saw the first movie in 2016 are now 80 years older, and as teenagers or
05:16young adults, they're likely heading to Moana 2.
05:19Some of them may even be bringing their own children to Moana 2.
05:22Whether it's about sharing the experience with a relative or satisfying the urge to
05:26meet up with old friends, audiences are clearly happy to revisit the past.
05:30Moana herself has blossomed into an adult between the first and second film.
05:34No longer 16, she's a co-chieftain of her people and a wayfinder.
05:37This is serious!
05:39Is something distracting you?
05:41The movie does its best to move with those changes and explore how difficult it is to
05:45be an adult with authority at your fingertips.
05:47It's an excellent example of the movie's willingness to stick with what worked from Moana, while
05:51still pushing the envelope with other aspects of the story.
05:54The sum total is a coming-of-age story that virtually anyone can relate to, something
05:59that helped convince the first movie's fans to come back for this new adventure.
06:03Moana 2 takes its hero into uncharted waters, literally.
06:07So it's no wonder the titular character doesn't end up exploring them with just Heihei and
06:11Maui this time.
06:12"...our people will rise if you let them.
06:16Last time the chicken made it."
06:18Instead, she's joined by a full cast of brand new co-stars who became her sailing crew.
06:25Moni, Kele, and Loto are different in age, size, and character, but they all bring fresh
06:29blood to the sequel's narrative.
06:31Narratively speaking, they each helped Moana in ways that Maui couldn't, and without them,
06:35she would never get as far as she does.
06:37And they aren't the only new faces in this movie.
06:39Matangi provides another complex villain for our heroes to face, while Moana's rambunctious
06:44little sister, Semea, adds a new hilarious twist to her sister's island adventures.
06:49Semea in particular is likely to have been a significant draw for many Moana fans.
06:54Might a whole fresh generation of Wayfinders emerge from Moana 2?
06:58While the titular heroine gains all-new abilities in this sequel, the future of the franchise
07:02may lie in her three-year-old sister, Semea, shown to be an avid adventurer and more playful
07:12than her older sibling.
07:13It's quite possible that the franchise's future rests upon her shoulders.
07:17The movie also allows Semea to grow up enough to have her own personality, which means that
07:21she might end up embarking on her own adventures if Moana 3 ever comes about.
07:25A lot of the movie's marketing and at least one preview clip focused on Semea specifically,
07:30and it's likely at least some younger kids went to the movie just to see someone their
07:34own size bump up against the forces of evil.
07:37Despite all of the new characters in Moana 2, there are still plenty of familiar faces
07:41in the movie.
07:42Disney may have been brave in taking new approaches to the songs and to Moana's journey.
07:47Some things remain evergreen, including much of the movie's voice cast.
07:50Boatsnack!
07:51Oh!
07:52Boatsnack upgrade!
07:53Bacon and eggs?
07:54Why didn't you bring the pig last time?"
07:58Besides Dwayne Johnson and Aulia Cravalho, Tamura Morrison is back as Moana's father,
08:03Nicole Scherzinger is once again voicing Moana's mother, Rachel House returns as Tala, Moana's
08:09late grandmother, and Alan Tudyk returns as Heihei the rooster.
08:12None of the main casts of the first movie have been replaced, and everyone has returned
08:16to voice their characters once again.
08:18Of course, there's something to be said for that sense of familiarity.
08:21This is a far cry from Dan Castellaneta taking over for Robin Williams as Genie in the Aladdin
08:27direct-to-DVD sequels.
08:28I love it!
08:30No doubt knowing the original cast was involved in this sequel will have helped maintain a
08:34great sense of audience interest.
08:37What did Moana 2 bring to the theater compared to, say, Wicked or Gladiator 2?
08:42Well, any animation worth their salt knows that the best Disney movies know how to punch
08:46you right in the heart and make you laugh.
08:48Moana 2 keeps up that tradition by giving us plenty of antics with the hero and her
08:52crew, while also knowing how to make the audience cry at just the right moment.
08:56Like the Disney movies of old, this one's not afraid to scare the kids in the crowd,
09:00either.
09:01No spoilers, but it does get pretty dark.
09:03There's plenty of the traditional Disney poignancy in the sequel, of course, including one particularly
09:08affecting moment with Moana's grandmother, Tala.
09:11It's this ability to break down emotional walls that likely helped drive traffic to
09:15the theaters.
09:16Audiences know that Disney's the place to be if they want to feel all of the feelings
09:19when watching a movie.
09:20That made it a strong option next to fare like Gladiator 2.
09:23And while Wicked might be in tune with its own emotions, no one brings on the tears and
09:28laughter quite like the House of Mouse.
09:30Okay, spoiler alert for this one.
09:32The Moana franchise is two-for-two on introducing unique villains who are really cruel, but
09:37the mystery of the sequel's big bad seems to be one of the things that's driving audiences
09:42to theaters.
09:43Now I kinda miss the lava monster.
09:45The first movie featured Te Fiti and her broken heart, and Moana 2 has Motangi, the middlewoman
09:50for the much more wicked Nalo.
09:52While Te Fiti was always secretly a force for gentleness and good, Motangi doesn't even
09:56want to be involved in Nalo's mess.
09:58She aides Moana and Maui because she wants nothing to do with the villainy she's been
10:02forced to commit.
10:03While Motangi has largely been missing from the marketing of Moana 2 and was therefore
10:07unlikely to have contributed to ticket pre-sales, there's no way her intriguing arc didn't draw
10:11some word of mouth-wise after Tuesday.
10:14Disney rarely allows grey-hearted characters to steer their major franchises, but Motangi
10:19thrives.
10:20With the kind of numbers Moana 2 did at the box office, it's almost a given that we'll
10:23see how things play out for these characters in Moana 3.
10:26You're welcome, indeed.