Never bet against Disney. When they fail, the press relishes in going after them and proclaiming them to be washed up. YouTubers try to out-rant each other over how they are a dead company. And they’re always proven wrong. Never, ever bet against Disney.

Our number one movie is Moana 2, and where do we even begin here? The sequel to the 2016 hit smashed so many records this week that we may as well just say “you’re welcome” and leave it at that. As things stand, Moana 2 has the best three-day Thanksgiving weekend of all time with $135 million, surpassing both of Disney’s previous records for Frozen ($67 million, best Thanksgiving opening ever) and Frozen II ($85 million, best Thanksgiving three-day weekend ever). Moana 2 also swiped Disney Feature Animation’s best opening ever record from Frozen II ($130 million, opened the weekend before Thanksgiving). Oh, and we’re just getting started.

Moana 2 made a big splash immediately with a $57 million “opening day” on Wednesday, although here is where I’ll be “that guy” and point out that number really accounts for two days. I know, I know, the box office world is different since COVID, but you’re no longer really having “preview night screenings” when they start at 2:00 in the afternoon. But hey, that’s my only nitpick. Since opening on Wednesday Tuesday, Moana 2 has made $221 million. That’s insane.

You might be wondering how the fuck this happened, and at the end of the day, this comes back to Disney+. No, I’m not talking about how Moana 2 started life as a streaming series for that platform. I’m talking about how the original Moana is reportedly the most-watched movie on Disney+ ever, and ultimately, that’s why Disney made the decision to upgrade this one to a big screen release. Contrary to what you might have read elsewhere, this isn’t comparable to the Mouse House taking one of their straight-to-video sequels from the 90s and polishing it up for theatrical release. Why do I say that? Because Disney didn’t skimp on the budget here, which for Moana 2 was $150 million. This was clearly a “go big or don’t go home” affair, and the results speak for themselves.

How far does Moana go from here? Hard to say. We have never witnessed a Thanksgiving opening on this level, but the weekend after the holiday is notoriously one of the worst of the entire year. Will this time be different? Reviews for Moana 2 were “fine” (it’s hilarious watching hipsters on Twitter who make their online personas calling Lin Manuel-Miranda “cringe” do a tonal somersault and lament he didn’t return to do the soundtrack here), though its CinemaScore is a very friendly ‘A-,” so audiences (at least kids) like what they are seeing. But really, we’re in uncharted waters. Moana 2 could make $60 million+ next weekend, or it could plunge to $40 million. Either way, Disney still wins here. I’m sure Moana 3 will be the opening subject at the next company board meeting.

But wait…the good news doesn’t end there. Some people, including myself, wondered if Wicked: Part One might suffer in the wake of facing direct competition for the family crowd. Ding-dong, this witch is anything but dead, as it has $80 million for the three-day weekend, and now has a wicked total of $262 million. For those keeping score, Universal announced a Wicked movie ages ago, originally setting it for a December 20th, 2019 release date. You wanna know what they did end up opening on that day? Cats. Now imagine an alternate timeline where Universal decided to split that into two parts (also, I don’t care what Dwayne Johnson and Cynthia Erivo say, please for the love of fuck do not sing in the theater).

Are Wicked and Moana 2 feeding off each other? Or are they hurting business? Who knows, who cares. Both are making insane money, and while I don’t think it’s enough to justify the $350 million that was spent to market Wicked, it is apparent that the right call was made to milk two movies out of this one, at least from a financial level. Also, next year we get to do this all over again, with Wicked: Part Two opening on November 21st and Zootopia 2 coming on November 26th. Now if only I could erase all of those spoilers for Part Two I accidentally read online this week from my head. Thanks for that, Twitter.

But…there’s more! Gladiator II is still entertaining people, and brought in $30 million for the three-day weekend. This is a big budget popcorn cruncher where all of the money is up there on the screen. So far, the Ridley Scott sequel has made $111 million in riches, and is doing even better business overseas (the same…can’t really be said for Wicked, but maybe we’ll talk about that next week).

Anyway, the top ten, via Deadline

1. Moana 2 (Dis) 4200 theaters, Wed $57.5M Thu $28M Fri $54.5M Sat $50.5M Sun $30.5M 3-day $135.5M 5-day $221M/Wk 1

2.Wicked (Uni) 3,888 theaters, Wed $20.4M Thu $17MFri $32M Sat $29.4M Sun $18.6M 3-day $80M (-29%), 5-day $117.5M/Total $262.4M/Wk 2

3.Gladiator 2 (Par) 3,580 theaters, Wed $6.6M Thu $6.7M Fri $12.4M Sat $11.7M Sun $6.6M 3-day $30.7M (-44%), 5-day $44M, Total $111.2M/Wk 2

4. Red One (AMZ MGM) 3432 (-600) theaters, Wed $2.8M Thu $3M Fri $4.8M Sat $4.8M Sun $3.1M 3-day $12.896M (-2%), 5-day $18.7M, Total $76M/Wk 3

5. Best Christmas Pageant Ever (LG) 1,779 (-500) theaters, Wed $840K Thu $740K Fri $1.35M Sat$1.15M Sun $770K 3-day $3.27M (+2%) 5-day $4.85MTotal $32M/Wk 4

6. Bonhoeffer…(Angel) 1,800 (-100) theaters, Wed $500K Thu $540K Fri $918K Sat $825K Sun $660K3-day $2.4M (-60%) 5-day $3.44M Total $9.7M/Wk 2

7. Venom: The Last Dance (Sony) 1,716 theaters, Wed $500K Thu $486K Fri $815K Sat $905K Sun $480 K 3-day $2.2M (-45%) 5-day $3.1M Total $137.8M/Wk 6

8. Heretic (A24) 660 (-962) theaters, Wed $278K Thu $292K Fri $338K Sat $359K Sun $258K 3-day $956K(-55%) 5-day $1.5M Total $26.8M/Wk 4

9. The Wild Robot (Uni) 935 theaters Wed $180K Thu $180K Fri $260K Sat $250K Sun $160K 3-day $670K(-68%) 5-day $1M Total $142.4M/Wk 10

10.) A Real Pain (SL) 505 theaters Wed $115K Thu $120K Fri $236K Sat $253K Sun 3-day $665K (-38%) 5-day $900K Total $6.1M/Wk 5