The new film overcame lacklustre reviews, with some critics citing a story that seemed flat or muddled when compared with the original. Moana 2 scored a 65% approval rating from professional reviewers on RottenTomatoes.com, while the first film won over 95% of critics. Still, the sequel achieved a 87% score with audiences.
Walt Disney’s new Moana 2 brought in ticket sales of US$221 million ($296.75 million) in the US and Canada over its five-day Thanksgiving weekend, shattering the record held by the company’s Frozen 2 since 2019.
The performance of Moana 2, an animated sequel to the 2016 original about a Pacific island girl fighting to save her people from a terrible curse, led what was expected to be a record weekend of holiday sales for theaters, helped also by the recent releases Wicked and Gladiator II.
