The film industry hasn’t had much to be thankful for in recent years, but that’s changing this holiday week as three head-turning new releases are bringing audiences back to theaters in a big way.

The most compelling attraction is undoubtedly Disney Animation’s “Moana 2,” which grossed a whopping $57.5 million on Wednesday and is expected to dominate the Thanksgiving box office in a performance that will go down in the history books. “Moana 2,” which was originally developed as a television show for Disney+ before being turned into a movie, is expected to gross at least $175 million in its first five days in theaters (competitive studios say $200 million). If these high estimates are met, “Moana 2” will easily break records for the biggest Thanksgiving shopping ever, surpassing the previous highs of “Frozen II” ($125 million in five days) and “Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” “Exceed” from 2013 ($109 million in five days). “Moana 2”’s opening day numbers are already the third-largest for an animated title, just behind “Incredibles 2” ($71.2 million) and “Inside Out 2” ($63.6 million). The film grossed $66.3 million worldwide.

But it’s not just “Moana 2” that is causing a revival in cinemas. “Wicked,” Universal’s big-budget adaptation of the Broadway musical sensation, grossed $20.4 million on Wednesday and is expected to gross more than $63 million over its traditional weekend and $97 million over its five days. That means the film, which is the first part of a two-part odyssey through Oz, will have grossed more than $240 million domestically by the end of the week. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande play Elphaba (later The Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (later renamed Glinda the Good) in the critically acclaimed musical. The two films – Part 2 hits theaters next fall – cost a combined $300 million to make, not counting the tens of millions spent marketing the whole thing. An advertising campaign featured “Wicked” on everything from Starbucks drinks to nail polish to Lego sets.

Then there’s “Gladiator II,” Paramount’s expensive follow-up to the 2000 epic, which grossed $6.6 million as of Wednesday. The film, starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington, is expected to gross $28 million in North American theaters over the traditional weekend and $40 million between Wednesday and Sunday. This ends the holiday with grosses of more than $107 million at the US box office. However, returning to the Coliseum didn’t come cheap, especially after last year’s Hollywood strikes shut down production for months. “Gladiator II” has a huge budget of $250 million.

Critics have been somewhat muted on “Moana 2,” reporting a mediocre 67% average on Rotten Tomatoes, but the first film has a passionate fan base that has grown significantly since its release in 2018 thanks to its availability on streaming. According to Bloomberg, it was one of Disney+’s most popular films, garnering over 80 billion minutes logged among viewers. The voice cast for “Moana 2” includes Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson, reprising their roles as the daughter of a Polynesian chieftain and a demigod. However, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote popular songs for the first film such as “How Far I’ll Go”, did not contribute any new music for the follow-up film. Instead, Disney tasked Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, the team behind The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical, with coming up with enough new numbers to make the soundtrack a must-buy for families this holiday season.

Johnson does double duty in multiplexes. He’s also the star of Amazon and MGM Studio’s “Red One,” which grossed about $2.8 million as of Wednesday. Its gross domestic product is expected to be around $75 million after the holidays. That wouldn’t be a terrible number if the film hadn’t cost $250 million to produce, making it one of the biggest box office hits of the year. However, like “Moana 2,” “Red One” was originally conceived as a streaming-only debut before media companies began changing their distribution strategies and prioritizing theatrical releases.

The strong performance of “Moana 2,” “Gladiator II” and “Wicked” is welcome news for the cinema industry, which was just beginning to recover from pandemic shutdowns as actor and writer strikes began in 2023 led to a cascade of delayed releases and fewer major films shown to customers. But the triumvirate of blockbuster contenders is changing the dynamic and is expected to result in a box office gross of over $315 million in the week of Christmas, marking a new milestone. Could this be a sign that things are finally changing?