After a remarkable Thanksgiving stretch, the domestic box office has delivered an astonishing estimated $420M. According to Comscore, since our post yesterday, this holiday has seen a significant uptick in moviegoers. EntTelligence reports that 46M turkeys were devoured over the holiday, while 30M people flocked to the top three movies. Moana 2 pulled in 17.4M admissions, Wicked attracted 8.7M people, and Gladiator II amassed $3.3M over the Wednesday-Sunday period. In the current post-Covid marketplace, it's clear that there is no floor for when a movie bombs and no ceiling for when movies connect. This was evident in the success of Moana 2, Wicked, and Gladiator II over the holiday weekend.

AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron's Perspective

Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC Theatres, emphasizes that this weekend is a "national phenomenon" when it comes to moviegoing. The Wednesday through Sunday tally for all movies has broken the previous Thanksgiving record set in 2018 when Ralph Breaks the Internet drove the marketplace to a $315.6M total. Distribution sources anticipated a significant moviegoing rebound in the post-Covid-post strikes era, fueled by the massive want-to-see of Disney's Moana 2, as well as the second weekends of Universal's Wicked and Paramount's Gladiator 2. Since Friday, Nov. 22 when Wicked and Gladiator 2 opened, the 10-day box office is bound to gross a huge $681.5M. Moana 2 is setting a five-day opening and Thanksgiving record of $221M, while Wicked became the highest grossing movie based on a Broadway musical ($263M) and will have the third best five-day take ($117.5M) over Thanksgiving. Paramount's adult moviegoer destination Gladiator II is also seeing strong numbers with $44M.Press reporting indicates that Americans are pouring into movie theatres this holiday weekend for Moana 2, Wicked, and Gladiator II. There are also smaller titles like Red One, Conclave, and Juror #2 attracting audiences. It's an exciting time to be part of a national phenomenon and catch a flick at AMC!The counterprogramming of tentpoles during this weekend has proven to be successful. When tentpoles are of great quality, as seen in Wicked (96%), Moana 2 (87%), and Gladiator II (83%), all boats rise. Even after experiencing a high point at the box office, especially pre-pandemic, major studios sometimes fall short on product or get scared of competing with other big movies. This year's success should serve as a wake-up call for studios to leave no stone unturned when booking big films. Post-Covid, the top movies over Thanksgiving (five-day) were significantly lower compared to this year. In 2021, audiences were still skittish, with Disney's Encanto debuting at $40.5M, Disney/Marvel Studios' holdover of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at $63.8M, and last year's holdover of Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes at $42.2M.No. 2 circuit Regal Cineworld Boss Eduardo Acuna is excited about the holiday weekend. He exclaims, "Tis the season for moviegoing … the Thanksgiving weekend has completely exceeded our wildest expectations with records for Regal Cineworld in attendance, box office, and concessions. Congratulations to all our studio partners on this record-breaking weekend! The theatrical experience is one that cannot be replicated, and we are excited to keep this momentum going through the end of the year with blockbuster releases including Kraven, Sonic 3, and Mufasa to name just a few."Elated Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian is thrilled about the fantastic box office run. He states, "The planets aligned perfectly for movie theatres over this Thanksgiving holiday with a combination of films perfectly programmed to deliver massive box office revenue that was supercharged by the Glicked marketing hook that drew attention to the big screen and then followed brilliantly by Moana 2. This will now be the blueprint for how a rising box office tide can indeed raise all ships by virtue of having three high profile blockbusters in the mix at once all pulling in the same direction to great effect."Next year, there are several highly anticipated movies set to release. Wicked: Part 2 is on the pre-Thanksgiving Friday, along with Paramount's Edgar Wright reboot of The Running Man with Glen Powell and Josh Brolin, an untitled Warner Bros/New Line movie, and Angel Studios' animated David. Disney's Zooptopia 2 will also be released on Thanksgiving eve. The more movies, the merrier for movie lovers.All figures will become final on Monday, adding an element of anticipation to the already exciting box office results.