“Moana” headed for $88m opening

Disney's animated adventure “Moana” is dominating North American movie-going with as much as $88 million for the five-day Thanksgiving holiday period, early estimates showed.

Brad Pitt's “Allied” appears to be performing respectably with around $19 million for the five days while Billy Bob Thornton's “Bad Santa 2” is heading for a decent return in the $12 million range. Meanwhile, Warren Beatty's “Rules Don't Apply” is generating only modest interest with about $5 million for the holiday period.

“Moana” opened with plenty of box office power by taking in $2.6 million at Tuesday night preview showings. The film may even match the all-time Thanksgiving record of $93.4 million for the five days, set three years ago by Disney's “Frozen”. It's the third animated film released this year by Disney following “Zootopia” and “Finding Dory” — both which topped $1 billion in worldwide grosses.

“Moana” has been embraced by reviewers with a 99% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film introduces Auli'i Cravalho as the voice of Moana and features Dwayne Johnson as Maui with music by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton”.