US box office collection: Moana breaks Frozen's opening day record, but fails to beat Zootopia

As expected, Disney's animated movie Moana has shattered the opening day box office collection record of 2013 release Frozen this Thanksgiving. Moana raked in $15.7 million on its opening day at the US box office, icing Frozen's $15.2 million earnings.

Moana, which released on November 23 at the North American box office, is about a young spirited princess (voiced by Auli'i Cravalho) in Polynesia, who goes on a journey to fulfil her ancestors' unfinished quest. During her journey, Moana meets mighty demi-god Maui (voice of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), and together they cross the open ocean to finish the quest, the synopsis of the movie states.

And like the ocean, Moana also conquered at the box office on its first day with one of the biggest Thanksgiving openings for Walt Disney. However, when compared to Disney's last animated movie Zootopia, the opening day collection is low. Zootopia, released on February 11, fetched $19.5 million on the first Friday, while Moana minted $15.7 million a day before the Thanksgiving holiday, Forbes reported.

Nevertheless, the film's box office collection is expected to witness a good jump starting from its second day, i.e., from the Thanksgiving Day holiday. With rave reviews, positive buzz and 90 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, trade experts have predicted that the film will beat the five-day record of Frozen's $93.5 million box office total.

Other releases this week, including Allied, Bad Santa 2 and Rules Don't Apply, had a lacklustre start at the box office. The combined opening day box office collection of these three movies is lower than Moana's first-day business.

Allied, starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, made approximately $2.7 million on its first-day run. The film, which is made on a budget of approximately $85 million, is expected to round up its five-day extended weekend with over $18 million total.

Bad Santa 2, starring Billy Bob Thornton, underperformed and minted roughly $1.6 million. The film is expected to take its five-day weekend total to not more than $10 million, Variety reported.

The third film, Rules Don't Apply, starring Warren Beatty, had a poor start at the box office, with the film raking in  $315,000 on day one.

Looking at the opening day box office collection of the newly released films, it is safe to say that Moana will continue to dominate the market at least in the first week.