“Moana 2” tops $1 billion, extending Disney’s dominance on the field workplace

By UMass Mag Last updated Jan 21, 2025

Dwayne Johnson voices Maui in Disney Animation's Moana 2.

Disney

The Walt Disney Company Dominance at the box office continued into the holiday weekend.

“Moana 2” passed the $1 billion mark over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, becoming the studio’s third release of 2024, following Marvel Studios’ “Deadpool and Wolverine” and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” which achieved the coveted benchmark. No other Hollywood studio had a film grossing more than $1 billion last year.

As the company announced over the weekend, “Moana 2” grossed $442.8 million at the domestic box office and $567.1 million at international theaters. Along with “Frozen,” “Frozen II” and “Zootopia,” it is the fourth film from Walt Disney Animation to sell more than $1 billion in tickets.

The achievement marks another milestone for Disney, which has struggled to gain traction with its animated releases in the years following the pandemic. Much of the company's difficulties stemmed in part from its decision to release a handful of animated features directly to its Disney+ streaming service. This trained parents to look for new content at home, even after theaters closed and films returned to theaters.

“Inside Out 2” not only marked a return to form for Disney, but also helped boost overall box office revenue in June. The film grossed more than $650 million domestically and became the first film since Warner Bros.'s “Barbie” to top $1 billion at the global box office.

It was also the first time since 2019 that an animated film from Pixar or Walt Disney grossed more than $480 million at the global box office. “Inside Out 2” ended up becoming the highest-grossing film of 2024.

“Deadpool and Wolverine,” “Inside Out 2” and “Moana 2” and a handful of other theatrical releases helped Disney bring in more than $2.2 billion at the domestic box office last year, accounting for about 25% of the industry's total according to Comscore.

With “Moana 2” surpassing the billion-dollar mark, Disney now has $32 billion in films, according to the company — including three films it acquired when it acquired Fox in 2019. For comparison, there have only been 56 films that grossed more than $1 billion at the global box office, meaning Disney is responsible for nearly 60% of the highest-grossing films in cinema history.