The Thanksgiving box office is being dominated by Disney’s sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet. Indeed, the animated follow-up pulled in a gargantuan $10.3 million for Thanksgiving Day and is in line to gross a whopping $90 million to $94 million for the Wednesday through Sunday frame. If it hits $94 million, it’ll beat Frozen’s five-day Thanksgiving weekend box office record of $93.6 million.
Disney is no stranger to dominating Thanksgiving. Last year, Disney/Pixar’s Coco pulled in $72.9 million, while the year before saw Moana top out at $82.1 million. Ultimately those two films ended up with very different worldwide grosses—Coco finished with $807 million while Moana closed up shop with a total of $643 million—so it’ll be interesting to see how high Ralph Breaks the Internet soars in the longterm.
But the Wreck-It Ralph sequel isn’t the only new film out this holiday, as Creed II is also faring quite well. The Michael B.Jordan-fronted boxing drama pulled in $8.9 million on Thanksgiving Day and is looking at a holiday weekend launch of at least $60 million. That would be the best Thanksgiving opening of all-time for a live-action title, topping the $49 million five-day total of Disney’s Enchanted in 2007.
If you haven’t noticed, Thanksgiving is usually dominated by family films, so Creed II doing so well here could kick off a new trend of counterprogramming more adult-oriented (but still family-centric) fare during the holiday. In contrast, Creed launched to $42 million for the five-day frame in 2015 and went on to gross $173.5 million worldwide.
Stay tuned this weekend for revised estimates as moviegoers continue to flock to theaters, and check out a chart of the best Thanksgiving Day opening weekends of all time below.
Rank |
Movie |
5-Day Opening Total |
1. |
Frozen |
$93,590,387 |
2. |
Moana |
$82,080,274 |
3. |
Toy Story 2 |
$80,102,784 |
4. |
Coco |
$72,908,930 |
5. |
Tangled |
$68,706,298 |
6. |
The Good Dinosaur |
$55,455,687 |
7. |
Enchanted |
$49,060,281 |
8. |
Four Christmases |
$46,054,468 |
9. |
Unbreakable |
$46,010,629 |
10. |
A Bug’s Life |
$45,739,516 |