Dear Gossips,
It’s funny how a narrative can change in two weeks. It was just two weeks ago that Red One was released, starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson and Chris Evans. The movie topped the box office but it was considered a soft open, coming in at a disappointing $32 million with a $250 million budget. That was the story… then.
Now it’s American Thanksgiving and Moana 2 which is now expected to make history as it’s projected to bring in anywhere from $175-$200 million over the five-day holiday and become the biggest Thanksgiving opening of all time. So now the story has changed, because Moana 2 would be The Rock’s second #1 at the box office in the same month. Deadline calls it a “rare Hollywood feat”.
But he kinda needed this win, didn’t he? Prior to Moana 2, the arrow was pointing down. Jungle Cruise and Black Adam did not hit. Red One, as just noted, did not perform well against its budget. Moana 2 has obviously stopped the flop streak so it’ll be interesting to see whether or not it represents a turnaround for him from this point.
Staying with the box office, though Moana 2 is dominating, Wicked is still doing very well and is projected to bring in over $90 million during the five-day US Thanksgiving stretch. If that projection holds, it would mean that Wicked’s domestic total will near $250 million after two weeks and considering that they spent $300 million on both movies (with the second one due next year), that’s definitely encouraging for Universal.
Gladiator II will come in third at the box office after the weekend with between $40-50 million and a two week total of around-ish $110 million domestically. But against a $250 million budget. They’re probably not unhappy about that but if we’re actually still talking about a Gladiator v Wicked showdown? I feel like there’s a clear winner here. The singalong beat the bloodbath, LOL.
Welcome back to Americans who managed to stay offline yesterday. We were here, and there were a few new posts, please scroll down to get caught up.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
