Already among the year’s highest-grossing films, Disney’s Moana 2 climbed further up the global box office rankings this week. The film is poised to generate even greater interest on Christmas Day, which has historically been a particularly lucrative period for the marketplace. Moana 2 is currently the year’s third-biggest animated film at the global box office, and the second-biggest domestically. It’s also among the top five highest-grossing films of the year, both domestically and worldwide.

With $363 million stateside, Moana 2 has now overtaken Despicable Me 4’s $361 million lifetime gross. The Illumination blockbuster still leads globally, with a $961 million lifetime haul. Moana 2 also recently passed the $800 million mark worldwide, and this weekend, should be able to top the $900 million milestone. It’s only a matter of time before it topples Despicable Me 4’s global record. The movie is also primed to break the coveted $1 billion barrier globally, which will make it the third film of the year to do so.

The fellow Disney film Inside Out 2 is currently both the highest-grossing hit of the year, and the highest-grossing animated film of all time, with a cumulative global haul of just under $1.7 billion. Another Disney release, Deapool & Wolverine, is the second-biggest hit of the year, with a lifetime global haul of $1.3 billion. Thanks to these three films in particular, the studio’s cumulative haul has passed the $2 billion mark domestically and the $5 billion mark worldwide. Disney is the only studio to achieve these milestones in 2024.

The 'Moana' Franchise Is Sailing Into the Future

Moana 2 serves as a sequel to the hit 2016 original, which made nearly $700 million worldwide and received an Oscar nomination in the Best Animated Feature category. The original Moana sits at a “fresh” 96% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, and has developed a huge audience on streaming in the years since its debut. By comparison, Moana 2 opened to mixed reviews, and currently holds a borderline “fresh” 61% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but that doesn’t seem to have impacted its box office performance too drastically.

If anything, the movie has proven to be a bigger draw than the more recent Mufasa: The Lion King — another Disney release, but one that under-performed in its debut last weekend. The Moana franchise will continue with a live-action remake of the original film, set to be released in 2026. You can watch Moana 2 in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

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