In 2016, a certain Vaiana (or Moana depending on the country) arrived at the cinema. A feature film which took the viewer to Polynesia in the company of young Vaiana and one of the great heroes of Polynesian literature: Maui. Huge success for Disney, with more than 600 million dollars raked in at the box office. A few days ago, Disney launched a sequel, simply titled Moana 2, in theaters. A risky sequel obviously, but this time, the bet still seems (more than) winning for the big-eared giant.
Moana 2 already stronger than Frozen 2?
Indeed, if the giant Disney is a regular at the cinema with its feature films, the sequels do not generally enjoy the same success. Already in the 90s, Disney risked offering a sequel to the extremely famous Aladdin, with The Return of Jafar (direct to VHS at the time), without forgetting The Lion King 2: Honor of the Tribe. Correct sequels overall, but a thousand miles from the original episode.
However, in 2019, the American giant ventured to offer a sequel to what was then a gigantic success: Frozen. Despite more mixed feedback, this sequel attracted plenty of spectators from its first weekend of operation. With Moana 2, Disney obviously expected a good score, but with $221 million in revenue over five days in the United States and Canada, the film has the luxury of breaking the record for a Thanksgiving weekend , held by… Frozen 2 precisely, which then accumulated 125 million.
There are already 2 million of you who have gone further with #Vaiana2currently in cinemas! 🌺 pic.twitter.com/uzvmNT1lqf
— Disney (@DisneyFR) December 1, 2024
Better yet, the cartoon recorded the best start of all time, for a film released on a Wednesday in the United States, ahead of a certain Super Mario Bros., the film, which generated more than 204 million dollars in 2023.
And the success of Vaiana 2 is not limited to the American territory, since the Disney film quite simply marks the best start of the year in France. In just a few days (the film was released in cinemas on November 27), Vaiana 2 attracted more than 2 million spectators to theaters in France. The film is thus ahead of Vice-Versa 2 (1.6 million) or even the very recent Gladiator 2 (1.1 million). It’s even stronger than Spider-Man No Way Home in 2021.
It remains to be seen whether this success will reinforce Disney’s idea of making Moana a trilogy, with a post-credits scene which clearly suggests the possibility of one day seeing a Moana 3 arrive. But given the reception reserved for this second opus, we can already bet a small ticket…
