‘Moana 2’ tops box office for 2nd week in a row

After a record-breaking Thanksgiving debut, Moana 2 continues to ride the wave of gratitude with another No. 1 weekend, earning $52 million in its second week of release.

That brings the Disney sequel to a domestic gross of $300 million, while globally, Moana 2 has crossed the impressive $600 million mark.

Reuniteing Moana (voice of Auli’i Cravalho) and Maui (voice of Dwayne Johnson), the sequel to the hit 2016 musical picks up three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced.

Wicked continues to be quite pop-u-lar, raking in $34.9 million in its third week of release, for a domestic cume of $320.5 million ($455.6 million globally). Directed by Jon M. Chu Wicked is the first chapter of a two-parter, with the second half premiering next year. The massive musical stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a magical young woman, misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, who has yet to discover her true power, and Ariana Grande as Glinda, a popular young woman, gilded by privilege and ambition, who has yet to discover her true heart. 

Lagging way behind in third, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II brought in $12.5 million, for a three-week domestic total of $132.7 million ($368.4 million worldwide). The film continues the epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in ancient Rome. Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius (Paul Mescal) is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical twin emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.

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Dwayne Johnson appears a second time in the box office ranking with Red One, an action comedy centering around the abduction of good old St. Nick (J.K. Simmons), and it’s up to the head of North Pole security (Johnson) and a notorious hacker (Chris Evans) to find him. In its fourth week out, the film by Jake Kasdan took fourth place with $7 million, for a domestic cume of $85.8 million ($164 million worldwide).

The only new film to grace the top 5, India’s Pushpa: The Rule – Part 2 earned $4.9 million in its opening weekend with a domestic cume through Sunday of $9.3 million ($92.5 million globally).  In this action thriller directed by Sukumar, Allu Arjun stars as the titular Pushpa (Arjun), who’s struggling to sustain his sandalwood smuggling business in the face of tough opposition from the police.

Elsewhere, a rerelease of Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s 2014 sci-fi epic, debuted at No. 6, earning $4.4 million at only 165 theater locations. When it originally premiered, the film — starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as astronauts in search of a new home for humankind — brought in $47.5 million domestically and went on to gross $188 million ($681.1 million worldwide).