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While many were skeptical of the idea of a Moana live-action remake just two years after Moana 2 was released, it is still rather stunning that the film is reviewing this badly.<\/p>\n
Moana, with dozens of reviews now in, has amassed a 37% Rotten Tomatoes score,<\/a> the worst in Disney live-action adaptation history. That\u2019s lower than at least 12 other movies, including the worst ones like Maleficent, Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland. Criticisms include its flat visuals, underwhelming performances and the fact that it simply did not need to exist at all as nearly a 1:1 remake of the original film.<\/p>\n Disney may need to take a beat to figure out the plan for continuing with this concept. Perhaps that not every movie they\u2019ve ever made needs an adaptation like this, particularly not the ones that have released so recently. There is a big difference between say, Lilo and Stitch, which released 24 years ago, and Moana, featuring characters who were last seen on screen in 2024.<\/p>\n The biggest question, of course, is box office. While many of these movies have performed very well, some have bombed. Here are the last ten movies and their global totals:<\/p>\n You may say that Moana, given the love for the original, is destined to be a smash despite these scores and a $250 million budget, but that\u2019s become questionable. The most recent projections are that it may earn $60 to $65 million its opening weekend, or even as low as $40 million, a figure deemed \u201ccatastrophic\u201d by some<\/a>. In contrast, the Lilo and Stitch megahit opening weekend grossed $146 million. Doing half or even a third of that, if that extended to the global box office total, would be disastrous.<\/p>\n Disney is already pressing forward with new adaptations, the nearest being a live-action Tangled out in 2027. In the works are Lilo and Stitch 2, Hercules, Maleficent 3, The Aristocats and Cruella 2. There are some rather obvious big omissions right now. That would include The Princess and the Frog, Pocahontas, Tarzan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Big Hero 6, Encanto, Raya and the Last Dragon, Brave, Frozen 1 and 2 and smaller ones from there. Exactly zero of those sound exciting or necessary. There is absolutely no way that Disney will be able to resist Frozen, however, and I would predict $2 billion for that one.<\/p>\n We will see how Moana does, but if it\u2019s an enormous bomb on that big a budget, Disney may want to slow down with these and really think hard about the plans to potentially do everything over time.<\/p>\n Follow me <\/strong>on Twitter<\/strong><\/a>, <\/strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong><\/a> and <\/strong>Instagram<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Pick up my sci-fi novels the <\/strong>Herokiller series<\/strong><\/a> and <\/strong>The Earthborn Trilogy<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n