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Numbers are fun as many a math teacher once said, and in a rivalry between Disney’s Moana 2 and Universal’s Wicked, the latter is having the upper hand at the U.S./Canada box office, not just yesterday, but today as well.
Wicked made $5M on Wednesday, and is looking at $4.5M today, -10%. That’s ahead of Disney’s Moana 2 which did $4.4M yesterday, and is eyeing another $4.2M today, -4%. The hula girl beat the witches on Monday and Tuesday stateside.
Neither Universal or Disney are trying to crow over the other. The industry is having a heyday in the sheer fact that this week’s box office is leaps and bounds ahead of last year’s total post-Thanksgiving ($143.7M per Box Office Mojo).
Worldwide results are a different story as we hear Moana 2 is leading over Wicked daily. Yesterday the Disney Animation title made $16.1M taking its running worldwide cume to $439.7M. The Dwayne Johnson-Auli’i Cravalho reteam is expected to exceed the original 2016 title’s domestic final take of $248.7M sometime tomorrow.
We understand that presales for Wicked remain strong. Over Thanksgiving, the Jon M. Chu-directed movie became the highest grossing movie ever at the domestic box office based on a Broadway musical. The pic’s domestic total will hit $285.3M by the end of today, while Moana 2 will count $248M.
As we reported yesterday, Moana 2 is expected to be the No. 1 champ again, but with $60M, which is the most that a top-ranking film has ever made during the sleepy post-Thanksgiving/first weekend of December. Anything north of $36M for Moana 2 and it’s still a record.
Paramount’s Gladiator II is currently -9% today from yesterday’s $1.97M for $1.79M. The running total of the Ridley Scott directed, Paul Mescal-Denzel Washington-Pedro Pascal starring movie will move to $120.3M by EOD.
Prathyangira Cinemas’ Pushpa 2 – The Rule at 1,245 theaters started previews yesterday and sources tell us that the gangster-cop sequel already has $800K in the til today.