{"id":919729,"date":"2026-07-08T00:41:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T00:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/919729\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T00:41:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T00:41:23","slug":"moana-eyes-130m-global-opening-at-the-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/919729\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Moana’ Eyes $130M Global Opening at the Box Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDisney is hoping that moviegoers come to the water, no matter how hard the studio tries with the live-action version of its hit 2016 animated movie, Moana<\/a><\/strong>, which is looking to hang ten again at the box office with a global start of<\/strong> $130M<\/strong>, domestic in the $60M<\/strong>+ range.<\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Thomas Kail (Disney+ feature of Broadway\u2019s staged Hamilton), the pic has Dwayne Johnson reprising his role from the animated franchise, demigod Maui, with Catherine Laga\u2019aia stepping in for Auli\u2019i Carvalho to play the title role.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe question about all of this is whether it\u2019s too much Moana too soon, just like there was too much Super too soon (meaning Supergirl being a year after Superman). The live-action version of Moana was greenlighted before former Disney CEO Bob Iger decided to flip the Moana Disney+ series into a feature animated sequel, Moana 2, which literally played theaters 19 months ago. It opened to a massive Thanksgiving 5-day North American record of $225.4M<\/a> ($139.7M 3-day), and a toon-record $389M global<\/a>, legging out to $460.4M U.S.\/Canada and over $1 billion worldwide<\/a>. The original Moana posted an $82M 5-day opening ($56.6M 3-day) over the 2016 Thanksgiving holiday period.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: <\/strong>The 25 Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Global Box Office<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSomething else to potentially consider this weekend is that we\u2019re in a bit of a funk at the summer box office after the lackluster openings for Warner Bros\/DC\u2019s Supergirl<\/a> and Illumination\/Universal\u2019s Minions & Monsters<\/a>, but peg that to product no one was begging for. Still, there doesn\u2019t seem to be anything to worry about: Universal\u2019s The Odyssey and Sony\/Marvel Studio\u2019s Spider-Man: Brand New Day are expected to clean up. Also, the domestic box office is on the verge of passing the $5B mark, 13% ahead of 2025, while summer (first weekend of May through July 5) stands at $2.3B, 12% ahead of the same frame a year ago.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney seems to have no frets as the original Moana is one of the studio\u2019s most popular movies with 1.5 billion hours watched and annually ranking among Disney+\u2019s top 10 films since the service launched in November 2019. The question is whether the live-action take of the ancient Polynesian-set story can blow like a volcano at the B.O. with families lining up beyond what the horizon is showing. Tracking shows Moana with a $75M North American start, but advance ticket sales, which are around $4M, point to a $60M-plus opening. The surfer girl is booked at 3,900 theaters, with the wind power of Imax, PLFs, 3D and 4DX against her back. Target demo is all women and families.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: <\/strong>45 Of The Most Anticipated Movies Of 2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tOverseas she has a 91% footprint except for Japan (end of July) and Italy (end of August), with an expected $70M-$75M foreign B.O. opening. Like-for-like comps are Universal\u2019s live-action take of last summer\u2019s DreamWorks Animation title How to Train Your Dragon ($96M international opening) as well as Disney\u2019s own 2023 live-action take on The Little Mermaid ($61M int\u2019l B.O. bow). Latin America, Australia\/NZ, France, Germany and the UK are the slam dunks for Moana. Pacific Asia is challenged, though Japan can pop (Moana 2 minted a reported $33M+ there).<\/p>\n

\n\tNo reviews yet for Moana. The L.A. premiere is Tuesday night at the Hollywood Bowl. Previews stateside start at 2 p.m. Thursday.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFrom left: Maude Davey (in wheelchair), Souhelia Yacoub, Tandi Wright and Hunter Doohan in \u2018Evil Dead Burn<\/a>\u2018<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWarner Bros Pictures\/Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tWarner Bros has New Line\u2019s Sam Raimi-produced Evil Dead Burn<\/strong> in 3,000 theaters domestic. It\u2019s expected to do in the teens<\/strong>. Directed by S\u00e9bastien Vanicek (2023\u2019s Infested), the follow-up to 2023 reboot Evil Dead Rise stars Wednesday\u2018s Hunter Doohan in a story about curses lingering too long in a family and the undead that haunts them. Evil Dead Rise originally was destined for HBO Max before Warners realized the goods and switched it to a theatrical release, where it opened to $24.5M domestic and finaled at $67.2M stateside and more than $147M WW \u2014 a very profitable title netting $46M off a $15M production cost.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: <\/strong>21 Theatrical And Streaming Movies To Look Forward To This Summer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tEvil Dead Burn is trailing Evil Dead Rise in overall first choice, but the R-rated movie is best with women overall and men over 25.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'Gail<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass<\/a>\u2018<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSony Pictures Classics<\/p>\n

\n\tSony Pictures Classics has its Sundance pickup<\/a>, the comedy Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass<\/strong> in 1,200 theaters. Zoey Deutch plays a small-town hairdresser who comes to Hollywood to even the score with her fianc\u00e9, who has already bedded his celebrity sex pass. Gail sets her eyes on her dream guy, Jon Hamm. Hamm co-stars with John Slattery. It\u2019s 81% certified fresh with critics.<\/p>\n

\n\tA24\u2019s Olivia Wilde-directed Annapurna production The Invite<\/strong> is expanding to 1,600 sites in its third weekend after 28 bookings last weekend. Both Gail Daughtry and The Invite are looking at less than $5M apiece<\/strong> for the weekend. <\/p>\n

\n\tUniversal\u2019s second weekend of Illumination\u2019s Minions & Monsters<\/strong> is eyeing a 45% decline (maybe even a better hold coming off of a Saturday impacted the Fourth of July 4th) with around $20M<\/strong>. The pic\u2019s running total through Monday in U.S.\/Canada is $67.9M<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney is hoping that moviegoers come to the water, no matter how hard the studio tries with the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":876377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,223458,239793,17824,53,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-919729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-evil-dead-burn","tag-gail-daughtry-and-the-celebrity-sex-pass","tag-moana","tag-movies","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116881582210380634","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}