Moana 2 knows the way to a record-breaking Thanksgiving box office

Glicked alone may not have done Barbenheimer numbers, but Moglicked is apparently exactly what the doctor ordered. In what AMC theaters CEO Adam Aron called a “national phenomenon” (per Deadline), the 5-day holiday stretch brought in a record-breaking $420 million at the domestic box office, shattering the previous record from 2018. That year, Ralph Breaks The Internet led a $315.6 million total.

Of course, most of that cash came from the Big Three: Wicked and Gladiator II in their second weekends, and Moana 2 in its first. Deadline reports that over 30 million people saw those three films, split out into 17.4 million for Moana 2, 8.7 million for Wicked, and 3.9 million for Gladiator II. While The A.V. Club wasn’t all that impressed by Moana’s second voyage, the general public clearly felt differently. Even without Lin Manuel Miranda at the helm and a whole other musical to compete with, the film brought in a whopping $221 million over its first five days. That makes it not only the highest five-day opening of all time (beating The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s $204.6 million), but also the best-ever Thanksgiving debut and highest-ever opening for a Disney animated film, surpassing even Frozen 2. If Moana and Elsa’s kingdoms ever go to war, it seems we know which side the public will rally behind.

Stepping away from the numbers for a second, this was simply a heartening weekend for theaters overall. It’s been a bit rough for the places we come to laugh and cry and care of late. People just haven’t been coming, and the ones that have come seem to hold a different code of conduct around being disruptive, filming the screen, and generally preserving the theatrical experience. These things all certainly happened this past weekend (spurred on by Mowicked stars Dwayne Johnson and Cynthia Erivo, no less) but people also came back to the theater with their friends and families in a way they haven’t in months, if not years. Movies-goers reported theaters being so crowded that concession lines nearly went out the front doors. Now that’s something to be thankful for. 

You can check out the top 10 films’ weekend (and five-day) totals, courtesy of Box Office Mojo, below:

1. Moana 2, $135,500,000 (five-day: $221,000,000)
2. Wicked, $80,000,000 (five-day: $117,500,000)
3. Gladiator II, $30,700,000 (five-day: $44,000,000)
4. Red One, $12,895,000 (five-day: $18,717,000)
5. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, $3,275,000 (five-day: $4,855,000)
6. Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin., $2,403,859 (five-day data unavailable)
7. Venom: The Last Dance, $2,200,000 (five-day: $3,105,000)
8. Heretic, $956,797 (five-day: $956,797)
9. The Wild Robot, $670,000 (five-day: $1,000,000)
10. A Real Pain, $665,000 (five-day: $900,000)