While the first Moana film was a huge success in itself, Moana 2 managed to surpᴀss the beloved original movie at the box office. The film is a direct sequel to 2016’s Polynesian Disney adventure, which saw the тιтular character journey into the reaches of the Pacific Ocean in search of a mythological treasure that could help restore her island to its former glory. It quickly proved itself to be among the best Disney releases of the 21st century, and Moana 2’s commercial performance exceeded even those high benchmarks.

Moana 2 picks up briefly after the original’s conclusion, as the young protagonist teams up with the demigod Maui once again for another journey into the oceans — this time, answering a mysterious call that seems to be coming from her family’s ancestors. Just like the original, it’s a powerful story of self-acceptance and legacy that embodies all the bold storytelling and catchy music that audiences have come to expect from this series. Moana 2 introduces new gods and demigods to increase the scale of this narrative even further, which clearly had audiences across the world intrigued.

Moana 2’s Total Box Office

The Disney Sequel Was A Hit For The Studio

By the end of its box office run, Moana 2 became the third-highest-grossing 2024 release worldwide with almost $1.06 billion earned. That also makes it one of only three 2024 movies that surpᴀssed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, with the other two being Inside Out 2 and ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine. According to Box Office Mojo, Moana 2 grossed over $460 million in the United States. It went on to perform even better in the international markets, making an additional $597 million.

These stats are extremely impressive for Moana 2, although not altogether surprising. There was a huge amount of excitement and anticipation for this release, partly because of its status as a Disney film and partly because of the reputation of the original movie that preceded it. The sequel was a recipe for success, and its box office figures seem to prove that. Moana 2’s mᴀssive box office opening marks one of the year’s biggest commercial successes, proving that people showed up on opening day and the word-of-mouth stayed strong.

Moana 2’s Opening Weekend Box Office

The Sequel Outperformed The Original On The Opening Weekend

The true indicator of any film’s box office draw is the opening weekend numbers, which were just as impressive for Moana 2 as the film’s creatives could’ve hoped. The movie pulled in $139 million across the first few days, almost doubling this figure in the week that followed. These are huge numbers for any film, but they’re even more important for an animated sequel to a movie that’s already eight years old.

Before the release of Moana 2, there wasn’t that much excitement surrounding this Disney property — it was hugely successful when the first movie was released in 2016, but in the years that followed, there hasn’t been an overwhelming demand for a sequel. This had many fans understandably worried that Moana 2 wouldn’t perform as well as expected at the box office, but the film immediately crushed those worries and proved itself more lucrative than the original.

Moana 2 Box Office Records Explained

The Film Has Broken Some Long-Standing Disney Records

As per Disney and Comscore (via THR), there have been several long-standing box office records that Moana 2 has broken. The first record pertains to the film’s Thanksgiving release, and states that Moana 2 has secured the best five-day Thanksgiving opening of all time, including movies that were released in the weeks before Thanksgiving weekend. This is huge news for Moana 2 and the future of the franchise, as Thanksgiving is famously a very important and compeтιтive holiday for the film industry.

Before Moana 2’s release, it was another Disney property that held some of the most important box office records. Frozen 2 previously had the biggest Black Friday gross of all time, the biggest Thanksgiving gross of all time, and the biggest opening day gross for a Disney animated movie. Now, all of these records belong to Moana 2. The sequel also broke the record for the biggest global opening ever for an animated movie.

How Moana 2’s Box Office Compares To 2016’s Moana

The Sequel Has Lived Up To The Original

While discussing Moana 2’s impressive box office performance, it’s important to understand how this compares to the commercial success of the first movie. Moana was another huge success at the time of release in 2016, though its opening weekend wasn’t quite as impressive as the sequel’s — the first film gathered $56 million over the first few days. Moana later accumulated $248 million in the United States and $394 million in the rest of the world, resulting in an international gross of $643 million.

These are huge figures for an animated movie, but Moana 2 far surpᴀssed them. Its opening weekend was almost three times larger than the first movie’s, and the sequel took in over $300 million more than its predecessor internationally, which is an astounding accomplishment. While Moana 2 fell short of being the next Disney film to break the $1.6 billion record currently held by Inside Out 2, it certainly came close.

How Moana 2’s Box Office Compares To 2024’s Other Animated Movies

Moana 2 Was Among 2024’s Biggest Animated Hits

While it’s important to understand Moana 2‘s success in relation to the first film, it’s arguably even more relevant to consider the film’s huge box office accomplishment in comparison to other animated movies from 2024. Moana 2 was able to surpᴀss another popular animation franchise, beating Despicable Me 4′s $969 million gross to become the second-highest-grossing animated movie of 2024. It only remains behind fellow Disney project Inside Out 2 at $1.7 million.

The huge success of Moana 2 is an excellent sign for the future of the franchise, with the possibility of Moana 3 increasing steadily as a result. There’s so much love for this Disney franchise, and the fact that it managed to outperform movies such as Wicked and Dune: Part Two last year at the worldwide box office just proves how popular it is. Moana 3 would surely be an intelligent decision from the studio at this rate.

What Moana 2’s Box Office Means For Disney & The Franchise’s Future

The Company Must Learn The Right Lesson From Moana 2’s Success

Ultimately, the incredible success of both Moana 2 and Inside Out 2 is a shining beacon to Disney that there’s plenty of room in today’s cinematic climate for creative sequels to their most beloved releases. This is a trend that Disney has been strongly capitalizing on recently, with the company focusing much of its time and resources on sequels, remakes, and reboots of their original properties that audiences already know and love.

While several of these sequels and remakes have been great, they also run the risk of being cheap nostalgia trips that lack original ideas and merely rehash old ones. But unfortunately, this could be a gloomy vision of the company’s future if they learn the wrong lessons from the success of Inside Out 2 and Moana 2. These films didn’t just succeed because they’re familiar sequels, but rather because of the creative storytelling and beautiful visual styles that they adopt.

Where Moana 2’s Box Office Ranks All Time For Animated Movies

Moana 2 Stands High Among The Genre Hits

Moana 2‘s box office has been impressive by 2024 standards, but even compared to all of the animated movies of all time, it has made a huge impact. The sequel currently ranks as the 11th highest-grossing animated movie of all time at the worldwide box office. Notably, Moana 2 was kept out of the top 10 by a movie that came out even more recently. The Chinese animated movie Ne Zha 2‘s box office not only surpᴀssed Moana 2 but went on to become the highest-grossing animated movie of all time with over $2 billion.

When it comes to domestic box office results, Moana 2 is the seventh-highest-grossing animated movie of all time. Also, with only two entries, the Moana movies make up the 15th highest-grossing animated movie franchise.