Moana looking shocked

The new trailer for Moana 2 shatters Disney’s record for most views in 24 hours for an animated movie. The highly anticipated sequel releasing in November sees Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson reprising their roles as Moana and the demigod Maui from the beloved first film. The story was originally going to be a Disney+ sequel series but ultimately took on the form of a full-length theatrical film now known as Moana 2.

According to Deadline, the Moana 2 trailer received 178 million views in the 24 hours since its online debut, beating out the previous records held by Inside Out 2, Frozen 2, and Incredibles 2. This means it became Disney’s most-watched trailer for an animated movie. Viewership numbers were collected from YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. In addition to the staggering number of online views, the trailer has been met with mostly positive reception and enthusiasm for the upcoming sequel.

Moana 2 Should Be Disney Animation’s Biggest Thanksgiving Box Office Hit Since 2019

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Moana and three other companions are looking at something while traveling in the ocean in Moana 2

Between Moana 2 ‘s trailer being an immediate success and it being a long-awaited sequel to one of Disney’s most popular movies from the past decade, it should easily be the studio’s highest-grossing Thanksgiving release since Frozen II .

Moana 2‘s record-breaking trailer viewership bodes well for its theatrical performance, a welcome sign for Disney after their animated films have struggled at the box office in recent years, particularly for Thanksgiving releases. Disney’s 2019 Thanksgiving release, Frozen II, performed exceptionally well, generating over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Theaters were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic during Thanksgiving 2020, and the 2021-2023 Thanksgiving releases all underperformed.

Strange World and Wish were critical and financial disappointments for Disney, and while Encanto became a cultural phenomenon, this only occurred after it debuted on Disney+, with the film only earning a $96.1 million domestic gross. Between Moana 2‘s trailer being an immediate success and it being a long-awaited sequel to one of Disney’s most popular movies from the past decade, it should easily be the studio’s highest-grossing Thanksgiving release since Frozen II.

As for whether Moana 2 can surpass Frozen II’s 1.4 billion office success, that is difficult to assess at this point. The trailer performances are in Moana 2‘s favor, but the box office has generally been down from where it was before 2020. The best asset to Moana 2‘s box office will be good word of mouth, which helped Pixar’s Elemental make a box office comeback and could give Moana and Maui’s return to the big screen the edge needed to shatter more Disney records.