{"id":926656,"date":"2026-07-11T00:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T00:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/926656\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T00:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T00:30:25","slug":"box-office-moana-disappoints-with-40m-45m-u-s-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/926656\/","title":{"rendered":"Box Office: ‘Moana’ Disappoints With $40M-$45M U.S. Opening"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFRIDAY PM:<\/strong> In regards to how far Disney\u2019s live-action take on Moana<\/a> <\/strong>will go this weekend, this answer is not far, with afternoon estimates showing a previews\/first Friday around $17M<\/strong> at 3,875 theaters for a 3-day between $40M-$45M<\/strong> \u2014 well below the $60M+ that was hoped for on the horizon. That puts the island princess at unfortunately the same level as Disney disaster Snow White<\/a>, a film with a whole other set of baggage, saddled by star Rachel Ziegler\u2019s public remarks and political leanings, which led to a first day\/previews of $16.2M and an awful $42.2M opening<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt $40M-$45M stateside in regards to its $250M production cost before hundred million more or so in P&A, not even a worship to Maui himself will save this film, unless families decide to take the time to do so on Saturday. But no rival studio is seeing anything even near a $50M 3-day.<\/p>\n

\n\tSecond goes to Illumination\/Universal\u2019s second weekend of Minions & Monsters <\/strong>with a solid hold of -46% or $20M<\/strong> at 4,244 theaters off a second Friday $6.3M <\/strong>and running total by Sunday of $107.8M<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

\n\tDisney\/Pixar\u2019s Toy Story 5 <\/strong>at 3,575 theaters is looking at a fourth Friday of $5.4M and 3-day of $18M<\/strong>, -40% for which will make Buzz, Woody and Jessie fly past $400M <\/strong>by Sunday. <\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: <\/strong>The 61 Movies That Have Made More Than $1 Billion At The Global Box Office<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tFourth belongs to New Line\u2019s Evil Dead Burns<\/strong> at 3,004 with a $6M+ Friday including previews and a 3-day of $15M<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe second Friday of Angel Studio\u2019s Young Washington <\/strong>is around $2M<\/strong> with a second weekend of $6.3M<\/strong>, -67% for a running cume by Sunday of $32.9M<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSixth goes to the wide expansion of A24\/Annapurna\u2019s The Invite<\/strong> with $2.2M <\/strong>today and third weekend of $5.1M<\/strong>, +635% and a running total of $6.4M<\/strong> by EOD Sunday. <\/p>\n

\n\tFRIDAY AM: <\/strong>Disney\u2019s live-action Moana<\/strong> made $4.5 million<\/strong> in previews from Thursday showtimes that began 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

\n\tNo audience score yet, but critics have walloped<\/a> this live-action version directed by Thomas Kail with Maui\u2019s hook at 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. That\u2019s lower than the live-action version of Snow White (39%) starring Rachel Zegler, Will Smith\u2019s Aladdin (57%) and Dumbo (46%).<\/p>\n

\n\tPreviews here for Moana are higher than Snow White ($3.5M, $42.2M opening) and Dumbo ($2.6M, $45.99M opening), but lower than Little Mermaid ($10.3M previews, $95.5M 3-day opening) and Aladdin ($7M previews, $91.5M 3-day opening). They\u2019re also well below the Tuesday previews before Thanksgiving of Moana 2 ($13.8M, $139.7M 3-day).<\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s the thing: Earlier this week we heard that Moana was hoping for a low-$60M start, but exhibitors pushed that down to a high-$40Ms projection. Presales heading into the weekend were at $4M. Yikes. Success with the latest Dwayne Johnson movie relies on walk-up business Saturday, and the fear is that the family space is crowded with the mega success of Toy Story 5 and the recent lackluster release of Minions & Monsters, not to mention it\u2019s too much Moana, too soon, this version arriving less than two years from the box office tsunami that was the animated Moana 2<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Moana\u2019 Live Action Cast Vs. Animated Characters: Who Plays Who?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWe have confirmed that the live-action Moana cost $250M before global P&A, which is higher than the $200M price tag of Johnson\/Seven Bucks\u2019 Amazon MGM Studios\u2019 production Red One and even the Rock\u2019s Red Notice. <\/p>\n

\n\tIf Moana comes in well under its $60M+ domestic forecast, the hope is that midweek business makes up for the shortfall as the feature will remain the only fresh family title during the onslaught of Universal\u2019s The Odyssey and Sony\/Marvel Studios\u2019 Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and before Paramount lets PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie off its collar August 14.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tLuciane Buchanan in \u2018Evil Dead Burn<\/a>\u2018<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Warner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n

\n\tSeparately, New Line\u2019s Sam Raimi-produced Evil Dead Burn<\/strong> did $2.3M in previews, which is $200,000 shy of previous installment Evil Dead Rise\u2018s $2.5M. That number translated into a $23.5M opening for the 2023 movie from Lee Cronin, which was 85% certified fresh with critics. Evil Dead Burn from S\u00e9bastien Vanicek stands at 72% certified fresh with critics. No audience score yet.<\/p>\n

\n\tMinions & Monsters<\/strong> counts a nine-day total of $87.7M<\/strong> after launching on Wednesday, July 1, that total running 47% behind Despicable Me 4 (another Wednesday opener) over the same period. The latter Illumination\/Universal title ended its run at $361M stateside.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rest of the week is as follows at the B.O.:<\/p>\n

\n\t2. Toy Story 5 (Dis) 3,965 theaters, Wk $49.8M (-54%), Total $385.2M\/Wk 3<\/p>\n

\n\t3. Young Washington (ANG) 2,725 theaters, Wk $26.6M\/Wk 1 <\/p>\n

\n\t4. Supergirl (WB) 3,602 theaters, Wk $13.5M (-72%), Total $62.M\/Wk 2<\/p>\n

\n\t5. Obsession (Foc) 2,650 theaters, Wk $9.4M (-41%), Total $249.5M\/Wk 8<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: \u2018Moana 2\u2019 Review: Disney Sequel Navigates Higher-Stakes Plot And Oceans Of Expectations To Make A Satisfying Splash<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRIDAY PM: In regards to how far Disney\u2019s live-action take on Moana will go this weekend, this answer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":926657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,223458,364179,17824,53,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-926656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-evil-dead-burn","tag-minions-monsters","tag-moana","tag-movies","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116898525832957714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926656","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=926656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}