Disney's Polynesian-themed feature "Moana" has yet topped the box office this weekend. "Moana" finished first for the second week in a row at $28.4 million despite a 50 percent drop in ticket sales after its 3-day opening weekend. With another $32 million added to its totals from the international market.
The Disney 3D animated story about a young woman chosen by the ocean to return a mystical relic was able to reach $119.9 million within its two-week run. "Moana" takes the top spot from previous number one movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", the latest installment in the "Harry Potter" franchise. There have been no significant wide release movies over the weekend due to a notable trend of low ticket sales post-Thanksgiving weeks.
Other than "Moana", this was a week full of Thanksgiving leftovers as movies such as "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" , which brought in only $18.5 million, a 59 percent drop compared to last week's performance at the tills. Despite this, the "Harry Potter" franchise movie was able to surpass the $600 million mark globally only 3 weeks into its run. "Fantastic Beasts" is likely to outperform the overall grosses of some of the original "Harry Potter" films.
This brightens the likely path that "Fantastic Beasts" will be taking the genesis of a new franchise of films of the same wizarding world created by author JK Rowling. Alien invasion movie "Arrival" took the third spot at $12.1 million bringing its total domestic earnings at $73 million. "Allied", starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard brought in $7 million during the weekend bringing its total earnings to $28.9 million.
Other releases over the week made modest earnings compared to these larger blockbusters. Fox Searchlight's "Jackie", starring Natalie Portman took in $275,000 domestically while EuropaCorp's "Miss Sloane" starring Jessica Chastain took in a meager $279,382.
It looks like things will start to pick up starting Friday however, as that studios will be releasing 15 new films in a bid to fill up theater sets for the upcoming holiday vacations.
