A trio of high-profile tentpole films are set to bring people to cinemas in their droves for this year’s Thanksgiving holiday weekend. This Friday sees Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II” and the musical “Wicked” set to to open to big numbers domestically of around $65 million and $100+ million respectively. However, it’s the week after with “Moana 2” joining the fray on Wednesday that will make things interesting for the five-day holiday as the trio of major films are each offering something for different audiences.
The three films together are expected to power the box-office to the biggest Thanksgiving weekend in history in terms of overall revenue. The previous record holder is 2018 when the second entries in the “Creed,” “Fantastic Beasts” and “Wreck-it Ralph” franchises pushed revenue to $315.6 million over five days.
That is expected to be beaten as “Moana 2” on its own is tracking to make $125-150 million at least over its five days. At the same time strong second week business for “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” are expected to do big numbers as both could end up repeating their three-day opening weekend figures again over the five-day holiday span. Even the arthouse cinema lovers have plenty to feast on with the Daniel Craig-led “Queer” and Angelina Jolie-led “Maria” both opening on the Wednesday.
It provides a welcome bit of sunshine for a box-office that, even with big numbers for the holiday, won’t close the year-over-yea.