Disney’s ‘Moana’ Reportedly Faces A Rough Opening Weekend At The Box Office
Disney has leaned heavily into live-action remakes of its animated classics over the past decade, chasing the kind of nostalgia-driven box office wins that turned ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘The Lion King’ into billion-dollar hits. The studio’s latest bet is a live-action take on ‘Moana,’ arriving in theaters a full decade after the original animated film first introduced audiences to the seafaring heroine.
Directed by Thomas Kail, the new film brings Dwayne Johnson back as the demigod Maui, this time opposite newcomer Catherine Laga’aia in the title role. The story follows Moana and Maui as they attempt to stop a curse from targeting her island home. The release comes just under two years after ‘Moana 2’ became a massive theatrical hit for Disney, creating an unusually tight turnaround between the animated sequel and this live-action reimagining.
According to the account Global Box Office on X, the live-action ‘Moana’ stumbled harder than expected on its opening Friday, officially pulling in $13.9 million plus another $4.5 million from previews. The post argued that the $60 million-plus opening projections floated by trade outlets had long been unrealistic, predicting the film would barely scrape together $40 million for the full weekend.
That skepticism lines up with broader reporting on the film’s rocky start. “Moana” made just $18 million on Friday from 3,875 North American theaters, with rival estimates putting its full opening weekend around $45 million, below the $56 million the original ‘Moana’ earned during its 2016 debut. That number falls well short of the film’s targeted $60 million-plus figure, after early tracking had even suggested a possible $75 million start.
The soft numbers are especially notable given the film’s price tag. The new ‘Moana’ carries a reported $250 million production budget and earned an A- CinemaScore from opening night audiences. Critics have been far less kind, with the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score landing in the low thirties, a steep drop from the reviews earned by earlier Disney remakes like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘The Lion King.’
The stumble also echoes another recent Disney disappointment. The opening is reminiscent of the $42 million debut in March 2025 for ‘Snow White,’ another live-action remake that underwhelmed despite a B+ CinemaScore. Industry watchers have pointed to franchise fatigue as a likely culprit, especially with ‘Moana 2’ having only left theaters a little over a year ago.
Johnson addressed the tight release gap directly at the film’s Los Angeles premiere, dismissing the idea that remakes need decades of breathing room. “To be honest with you, I never bought in to this idea of, ‘You have to wait 20 years. You have to wait 30 years. It’s too soon,'” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter. He added that the animated original’s themes felt worth revisiting through a live-action lens featuring a real young girl in the role.
With a $250 million budget on the line and reviews working against it, ‘Moana’ will need serious staying power to turn a profit for Disney. Do you think this live-action ‘Moana’ deserved a bigger opening weekend, or was the tight gap between it and ‘Moana 2’ always going to sink its numbers?
