EXCLUSIVE: The Moana live action trailer we understand has earned 182 million views in its first 24 hours.
Now Disney has been dropping a lot of 2026 trailers as of late, so here’s how that ranking shakes out. For a Disney live-action movie trailer (non-20th Century Studios), that’s the second most viewed trailer for the studio behind the teaser for 2019’s The Lion King at 225 million. By all accounts, Disney has a huge box office hit on their hands next summer with Moana opening on July 10, 2026.
Among all trailers that dropped this year and their first day traffic, Moana ranks third behind Fantastic Four: First Steps (202M views) The Devil Wears Prada 2 trailer which dropped last week to a 24-hour count of 185M views.
Online sentiment showed an enthusiasm for the return of Maui and Moana to the big screen and were impressed by the beautiful imagery showcased, especially the ocean scenes and tropical island landscapes.
The live-action Moana is directed by Hamilton Tony winner Thomas Kail, and stars newcomer Catherine Laga’aia in the title role. Dwayne Johnson is reprising the role of demigod Maui from the animated pics. In the movie, Moana answers the ocean’s call and, for the first time, voyages beyond the reef of her island of Motunui with Maui on an unforgettable quest to restore prosperity to her people. We also meet the intimidating yet adorable tribe of Kakamora.
The original 2016 animated movie grossed $643.3M, while last year’s sequel, Moana 2, did $1.059 billion for a total franchise haul of $1.7 billion. Moana 2 alone cleared $415 million in profit, and was the biggest merchandise driver for Disney films in 2024. The original Oscar-nominated Moana has clocked some 1.4 billion hours, reportedly the most for any movie on Disney+.
Moana is produced by Johnson, Beau Flynn, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who penned original songs for the original film. Kail also exec produces alongside Scott Sheldon, Charles Newirth and Auliʻi Cravalho, who voiced Moana in the animated features.