The November box office continued building up some momentum this weekend, closing the month on a strong note.

Zootopia 2 delivered the second biggest Thanksgiving debut at the domestic box office. But the real story was overseas, where the film opened with over $560 million worldwide, the largest ever debut for an animated film and the fourth biggest of all time. Meanwhile, Wicked: For Good had a rough drop, indicating that the word of mouth wasn't quite strong and that Zootopia 2 cut into its business.

The Top 10 earned a combined $182.8 million over the weekend ($280.5 million five-day). That's down 33.5% from last year, when Moana 2 broke the Thanksgiving debut record.

Debuting at #1, Disney's Zootopia 2 opened with a pretty great $100.2 million ($158.8 million five-day). That ranks as the second best Thanksgiving debut, just behind last year's Moana 2 ($225 million five-day). It's also far above the original Zootopia ($75 million).

While there will be some disappointment that it didn't get close to Moana 2, it should be noted that Thanksgiving has a ceiling to its performance, so a $158 million five-day debut isn't bad at all. Besides, Moana was one of the most streamed movies in Disney+, which led to a level of hype that Zootopia 2 would struggle to match. But that's not a bad thing.

After Zootopia earned $341 million domestically back in 2016, Disney took quite some time to finally get a sequel rolling. But despite the long wait, it still made a good job in what a sequel should do: bringing back the characters and continue expanding the worldbuilding. They also did a great job with their extensive marketing, and the lack of animated titles in theaters helped build demand for new family films. And while Moana 2 earned a middling response, Zootopia 2 didn't suffer the same fate; it's currently at a great 91% on RT.

According to Disney, 60% of the audience was female, and 54% was 25 and under. They gave it a pretty great "A" on CinemaScore, on par with the original and better than Moana 2. While Moana 2 had a strong debut, it also had very lukewarm legs, signaling mixed word of mouth. With much stronger reception, Zootopia should hold better than that. Right now, Zootopia 2 should finish with at least $375 million, but it can get much higher than that.

Last week, Wicked: For Good opened with a fantastic $147 million. Based on the original film's incredible legs, it was assumed that the film could have a very good run in terms of legs, even if it did not fully replicate them. After this weekend, however, it's clear that the film will be more front-loaded than expected.

Wicked: For Good earned $61.7 million ($91.7 million five-day). That's a rough 58% drop, far worse than the original's 27.9% drop. While it's foolish to expect the film to have a light drop like that, the drop is still steeper than anticipated. Seems that despite the film's "A" CinemaScore, word of mouth isn't as strong as the original. Through 10 days, it has amassed $269.2 million domestically.

The opening weekend was $35 million ahead of Wicked, but now it's just $6 million ahead of it. In fact, since Monday, For Good has lost every single day to Wicked, and it's unlikely it can overtake it again. As the gap shrinks with each day, it seems For Good will finish below Wicked ($474 million). It should still hit $400 million domestically, but its opening weekend suggested it would be higher.

In third place, Now You See Me: Now You Don't eased 23%, adding $6.9 million. That takes its domestic total to $49.6 million.

In fourth place, Predator: Badlands dipped just 26% and added $4.8 million this weekend. The film's domestic total stands at $85 million.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery was released in 600 theaters (none of which includes big chains like AMC or Regal), ahead of its December 12 debut in Netflix. As Netflix doesn't report box office numbers, there's conflicting numbers circulating. Right now, it seems like it has earned $4 million over its first five days. In contrast, Glass Onion earned $13.2 million on its first five days in 698 theaters.

Paramount's The Running Man dropped 34%, for a $3.7 million weekend. The film has earned a meager $34.2 million, and it will close with less than $40 million domestically.

A24's Eternity debuted with $3.1 million in 1,348 theaters ($5.2 million five-day). That's a solid debut, and it was eerily close to the debut of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey ($3.2 million), another fantasy romance film. The fact that it was just $100K short despite releasing in less than half the theaters is encouraging. Given the solid response so far, it could make its way to $10 million domestically.

Searchlight's Rental Family dipped 34%, earning $2.1 million this weekend. Through 10 days, the film has earned $7.4 million, and it should close with a little over $10 million.

Focus Features' Hamnet debuted in 119 theaters this weekend, earning $932,278 ($1.3 million four-day) and reaching ninth place. That's a fine $7,834 per-theater average, which isn't one of the year's best, but it's still solid given that it opened in over 100 theaters. Focus will expand the film this weekend, before finally hitting wide release on December 12.

Rounding out the Top 10 was Sisu: Road to Revenge, which clearly shows it will be front-loaded. It collapsed a steep 68% this weekend, earning just $773,175. That's an abysmal $348 per-theater average. It has made just $4 million domestically, and it will lose a lot of screens next week.

Neon released the Brazilian film The Secret Agent in 2 theaters, and it amassed $72,517 in its first five days. It will continue expanding, as the film has some strong Oscar buzz.

OVERSEAS

While Zootopia 2 had to settle for the second best Thanksgiving debut, it can find some comfort in the other record it annihilated this weekend.

Zootopia 2 debuted with a spectacular $401 million overseas, for a colossal $560 million worldwide debut. Easily better than Moana 2's worldwide debut ($389M). This is not just the biggest debut of the year, but it's also the best ever debut for an animated film worldwide, overtaking Ne Zha 2 ($431M). In fact, this debut is the fourth best ever, just behind Avengers: Endgame ($1.2 billion), Avengers: Infinity War ($640.5M), and Spider-Man: No Way Home ($600.5M).

More than half of the overseas numbers came from China, where the film posted an incredible $271.6 million in its first five days. This is the biggest debut for a Hollywood title in the market since Avengers: Endgame. Now, obviously Zootopia was big there (it made $236 million back in 2016), but considering how the country has rejected a lot of American titles, it's still insane to see a title debut that high. The film also has strong word of mouth in the market, which means it won't fade away like an average blockbuster there.

The film's biggest markets were China ($271.6M), France ($14.6M), South Korea ($13.7M), Mexico ($10.4M), Germany ($8.8M), UK ($8M), Italy ($6.4M), Taiwan ($4.5M), Australia ($3.8M) and Spain ($3.8M). Not all markets were bigger than Moana 2, but it should be mentioned that the film had underwhelming legs due to mixed word of mouth. Zootopia 2 should hold far better, especially when it has Japan left. A $1 billion is easily locked, and could get there as soon as next week. Which means that after just a little over 2 weekends, it will already be the biggest Hollywood film of 2025. Pure insanity!

Wicked: For Good showed some over-performance last week, but it looks like that was short-lived, both domestically and overseas. The film earned $29.4 million, which is a steep 57% drop from last week, taking its worldwide total to $391 million. While it had some advantage over the first Wicked, it should be noted that that film had a staggered release, while For Good opened in most of its markets already. That makes the drop even more perplexing, although the arrival of Zootopia 2 only accelerated the drops. The best markets are the UK ($42.7M), Australia ($13.7M), Germany ($6.2M), South Korea ($5.5M) and Mexico ($5.4M). You can see that aside from the UK and Australia, the film is not fully connecting with audiences outside America. It has China and Japan left, but don't expect a crazy performance there. Last weekend, it seemed like $800 million worldwide would be the target, but now it looks like it will miss $700 million worldwide as it doesn't have a lot of support outside.

Now You See Me: Now You Don't added $16.1 million overseas, taking its worldwide total to $186.9 million.

FILMS THAT ENDED THEIR RUN THIS WEEK

Movie Release Date Studio Domestic Opening Domestic Total Worldwide Total Budget The Conjuring: Last Rites Sep/5 Warner Bros. $84,006,121 $177,753,512 $494,400,469 $55M WB's The Conjuring: Last Rites has closed with a fantastic $177 million domestically and $494 million worldwide. It closed as one of the biggest horror films of all time, despite the mixed reviews and word of mouth. While that led to the film dropping faster than a rock, it didn't really matter in the end; almost half a billion is simply incredible for a film like this. Is this truly the last? Think again.

THIS WEEKEND

The weekend after Thanksgiving is usually a quiet one. With Thanksgiving over, people now mainly focus on the beginning of Christmas season shopping. As such, studios have avoided releasing big stuff in this weekend. In the 21st century, the largest opening debut post-Thanksgiving has been The Last Samurai with $24.2 million back in 2003. Other than that and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, no film has debuted with more than $20 million in the post-Thanksgiving weekend. Until this weekend.

Universal is releasing Five Nights at Freddy's 2 this weekend. A very interesting strategy, given that releasing a horror film in December is unusual. Not that it never happens, just that it's quite uncommon. Despite the terrible reviews, the original film earned a gigantic $297 million worldwide, becoming Blumhouse's highest ever grossing film. And it did it despite being released simultaneously in Peacock, which certainly hurts rewatchability. In contrast, this film is exclusively in theaters, so that's a plus. But it still remains to be seen how many audience members are coming back.

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