Moana‘s sequel is less than a month away and the movie is proving once again that this franchise is a goldmine, and one of Disney’s biggest properties of the modern era. How is it maintaining this crown jewel status, you ask? Well, it’s already breaking records even before its arrival.
Presales are now live for Moana 2 ahead of its Nov. 27 release date, and it has surpassed all other animated movies in 2024 when it comes to first-day ticket sales. Fandango shared the news of this new record on social media.Securing this record is no small feat.
Coincidently, Disney and Pixar may have snatched the top presale ticket title back from themselves, with another of their 2024 offerings, Inside Out 2, likewise being a massive animated success this year. Moana also beat out blockbuster films from other studios which include animations like The Garfield Movie and Kung Fu Panda 4, and the new addition to the seemingly endless Transformers franchise, Transformers One.
When comparing these sales against all movies — including live-action — this year, Moana 2 lands comfortably in fourth place, behind cinema goliaths Deadpool & Wolverine, Wicked, and Dune: Part 2. This is great company to keep and an indication that this sequel should live up to the box-office performance of the first film. Moana earned more than $643 million worldwide when it was released back in 2016.
The movie was unanimously regarded as a hit and has since become one of Disney’s most popular modern franchises, ending 2023 as the most streamed movie on any platform. Riding this wave of momentum, we expect that the sequel will do just as well, if not better than the first movie. For perspective, Inside Out 2 outperformed its predecessor and reached more than one billion dollars at the box office during its run earlier this year.
According to Fandango that sequel still did less first-day early sales than Moana 2, so the stage is set for a major box office eruption when it finally gets here. November is expected to be a gigantic month at the box office in 2024, with both Wicked and Gladiator II set to arrive just days before the Moana sequel. Wicked happens to be one of the three films that has achieved more day-one ticket presales than Moana 2, so it too is primed to have a big start at the box office.
Moana 2 will see the titular character journey to the far seas of Oceania after receiving a call from her ancestors. All of the first films’ key cast members will be returning to voice their characters once again, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Auli’i Cravalho as Maui and Moana, respectively.
You can get a glimpse of the action through the film’s trailer which also showed just how powerful this franchise has become by reaching more than 178 million views across all platforms in just 24 hours when it was released back in May.
If you want to refresh your mind on what went down in the first film it is available to stream on Disney Plus. Expect to see a lot of news regarding Moana 2 before and after its arrival in cinemas on Nov. 27, 2024. You can get your tickets now through Fandango and all of the other usual places.