For goodness sake, it tops the box office on Thanksgiving

Moviegoers have a lot to enjoy at the box office this Thanksgiving.

Disney Zootopia 2 grossed $10.2 million in previews on Tuesday, the second highest grossing Disney Animation Studios film of all time, behind Moana 2, which grossed $13.8 million last year. It is the eighth highest preview for an animated film of all time.

Box office analysts expect the film to gross between $135 million and $150 million during the five-day Thanksgiving period. Although that would be significantly less than the $225.4 million that “Moana 2” earned during the same period last year, it would still be a good shock to a box office that has struggled in the past few months to boost ticket sales.

Also in the mix is worldwide “Wicked: For Good” generated revenues of $147 million during its opening last week, and is expected to generate between $80 million and $100 million during the five-day holiday. That number may be higher considering that last year’s “Wicked” grossed $118 million during the Thanksgiving window after its debut to $112.5 million during the same weekend before Thanksgiving.

“The Thanksgiving holiday window is one of the most important moviegoing periods of the year, and it’s off to a rolling start with the superlative performance of Wicked: For Good, which delivered an impressive five-day run at the theater box office in the $300 million range,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of market trends at Comscore. “Zootopia 2 has an ideal release date, built-in branding and a revenue-boosting PG rating, so that’s a big plus.”

This year’s Thanksgiving faces tough comparisons after the 2024 holiday saw “Moana 2,” “Wicked” and “Gladiater II” pull in a record domestic cume of $424.9 million in five days. Previously, the highest Thanksgiving revenue was $315.6 million, which was earned in 2018, according to data from Comscore.

“While this record is not in danger of being broken, this year will prove to be a strong Thanksgiving holiday run for movie theaters that will likely rank in the top five all-time historical frame performers,” Dergarabedian said.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant will become the new parent company of CNBC based on Comcast’s planned spin-off of Versant.