For Good Lead Thanksgiving Box Office

Disney’s“Zootopia 2” snared $10.2 million in Tuesday previews, the second-highest haul for a Disney Animation Studios film ever, behind only last year’s “Moana 2,” which took in $13.8 million. It’s the eighth-highest preview for an animated movie of all time.

Box office analysts expect the film to generate between $135 million and $150 million during the five-day Thanksgiving period. Although that will be significantly below the $225.4 million that “Moana 2” took in during the same period last year, it is a welcome jolt for a box office that has struggled in the last few months to drum up ticket sales.

Also in the mix isUniversal’s“Wicked: For Good,” which tallied $147 million during its opening last week and is expected to bring in between $80 million and $100 million over the five-day holiday. That figure could be higher considering last year’s “Wicked” tallied $118 million during the Thanksgiving frame after debuting to $112.5 million during the same pre-Thanksgiving weekend.

“The Thanksgiving holiday frame is one of the most important moviegoing periods of the year and is off to a running start with the overperforming ‘Wicked: For Good’ powering an impressive five days of box office revenue for movie theaters in the $300 million range,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. “‘Zootopia 2’ has a perfect release date and built-in brand recognition and a revenue enhancing PG rating so that’s a huge plus.”

Thanksgiving this year is facing tough comparisons after the 2024 holiday saw “Moana 2,” “Wicked” and “Gladiater II” fuel a record-breaking $424.9 million domestic five-day score. Previously, the highest-grossing Thanksgiving haul was $315.6 million, which was captured in 2018, according to data from Comscore.

“While that record is in no jeopardy of being broken, this year will nonetheless prove to be a solid Thanksgiving holiday corridor for movie theaters that will likely rank in the top five performing frames historically of all time,” said Dergarabedian.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.