{"id":933268,"date":"2026-07-14T02:02:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T02:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/933268\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T02:02:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T02:02:21","slug":"moana-why-disneys-live-action-remake-bombed-at-the-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/933268\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Moana’: Why Disney’s Live-Action Remake Bombed at the Box Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDisney<\/a>\u2018s live-action Moana<\/a> did not make the summer splash<\/a> that the studio had hoped, leading to questions about not only what might be in store at the box office<\/a> for the Dwayne Johnson<\/a>-led title but also the potential for developing remakes of other animated favorites. <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter last year\u2019s Lilo & Stitch had a record-breaking $183 million<\/a> four-day opening weekend domestically before surpassing $1 billion in its global run, the live-action Moana appeared to represent a likely win as the summer approached. After all, the original 2016 animated movie \u2014 starring Johnson as the voice of demigod Maui who helps the titular girl (Auli\u2019i Cravalho) save her island \u2014 has become a beloved property for families and counts as the most-watched feature on Disney+. And, of course, Moana 2<\/a> confirmed the excitement for new theatrical entries from the franchise when it hit $1 billion<\/a> after its November 2024 release \u2014 although there is more to discuss with that one in a moment. <\/p>\n

\n\tDespite Disney anticipating an opening above $60 million domestically after third-party tracking initially suggested the film could launch to as much as $75 million, the live-action Moana was left gasping at the box office. Its $43 million opening in North America puts it in dubious company as one of the weakest debuts for Disney\u2019s remakes and is particularly tough given its $250 million production budget. Other misfires included last year\u2019s $42.2 million opening for Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot\u2019s Snow White and the $45.9 million bow for 2019\u2019s Tim Burton-directed Dumbo, although both of those reimagined originals from generations prior and might have felt dated to younger audiences. Additionally, the live-action Snow White found itself caught up in the culture wars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tStarring Catherine Laga\u2019aia<\/a> in the title role, the new Moana had a few strikes against it that dinged the opening. Its 34 percent approval score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes makes it among the worst-reviewed live-action updates, although the fan response has been another story, as it earned an A- CinemaScore, including an A+ from those under 18, and is \u201cverified hot\u201d with a 90 percent Rotten Tomatoes audience rating.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Lilo & Stitch had given audiences more than two decades to miss the first one \u2014 and likely had the advantage of millennial parents wanting to share the story with their children \u2014 Moana was the most recent original to get Disney\u2019s live-action treatment. Moana 2 was initially conceived as a Disney+ series but flipped to a theatrical release for 2024, which complicated the timing for the live-action movie that began production earlier that year. Given that Johnson voiced the sequel, fans may have felt that they had already scratched their Moana itch for the time being.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tCatherine Laga\u2019aia in Moana.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tIt also faced competition for families from such summer titles as Disney\u2019s own Toy Story 5<\/a> and Illumination\u2019s Minions & Monsters. That said, the latter may have dealt with some burnout of its own<\/a> in opening over the Fourth of July weekend to the lowest domestic sum for the Despicable Me franchise. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEverything comes down to timing in this business, and it just did not work in Moana\u2019s favor in this case,\u201d Fandango director of analytics and Box Office Theory founder Shawn Robbins tells The Hollywood Reporter. He points out that certain titles found the sweet spot to capitalize on nostalgia, like Disney\u2019s live-action takes on Beauty and the Beast (2017), Aladdin (2019) and The Lion King (2019), with these reimaginings of 1990s originals all opening above $90 million domestically en route to surpassing $1 billion globally. Another of last year\u2019s successes was Universal\u2019s live-action remake of 2010\u2019s How to Train Your Dragon.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s always a case-by-case basis,\u201d says Robbins about which Disney\u2019s movies could still work for live-action. Indeed, feature projects that were previously in development before seemingly stalling out have included live-action versions of Disney\u2019s Robin Hood<\/a>, Bambi, The Aristocats and The Sword in the Stone. But solid returns<\/a> on recent offerings like The Little Mermaid and Mufasa prove that audiences can still get invested in fresh looks at popular characters. \u201cWho knows where Disney goes from here?\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tA scene from Disney\u2019s 2010 animated movie Tangled<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney will aim to get the right recipe for Tangled, as the live-action retelling of the 2010 animated feature focusing on Rapunzel is currently in production in Spain. Weeks after Snow White\u2019s disappointing 2025 launch, the studio opted to pause development on Tangled but resumed its progress<\/a> in the fall after the out-of-this-world box office reception for Lilo & Stitch. Speaking of the latter, a live-action Lilo & Stitch sequel is also in the works, and there are certainly plenty of fans who are holding their collective breath that a live-action Frozen ends up in development.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Moana team can take heart knowing that the live-action movie has its share of vocal supporters. \u201cListen to the people who showed up, rather than the ones hating it unseen just because,\u201d Role Models screenwriter Timothy Dowling posted<\/a> over the weekend in praising the new Moana. Given the positive exit scores, Disney remains hopeful that the film can have legs, as the primary box office draw for the next two weekends will be Christopher Nolan\u2019s R-rated The Odyssey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for Johnson \u2014 who was cited as a key draw for those who did check out this weekend\u2019s film \u2014 Moana 2 was a bright spot at the box office amid the star\u2019s recent stretch that includes commercial misfires Black Adam, Red One and The Smashing Machine. He returns to another proven franchise later this year with Sony\u2019s Jumanji: Open World<\/a>, which will hope to excite fans despite opening just a week after both Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three. <\/p>\n

\n\tFor the bigger 2026 picture, the spring was full of promise, thanks to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Michael \u2014 which both crossed the billion-dollar mark globally \u2014 and other hits like Project Hail Mary and The Devil Wears Prada 2. The summer has seen reasons to celebrate, including Toy Story 5 appearing to head for the 10-figure club, not to mention surprise breakouts Obsession and Backrooms. But there have been wobbly recent weeks with disappointments like Supergirl, plus June\u2019s Masters of the Universe. The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day are two behemoths waiting in the wings later this month.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt has been a wild summer,\u201d admits Robbins, who points out that the season\u2019s biggest smashes are having to do some heavy lifting for the industry at large. \u201cNow there have been a few underperformers consecutively. That just really underscores what the expectation has been for a long time, that it would be a very top-heavy summer for the most part \u2014 and maybe for the year.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney\u2018s live-action Moana did not make the summer splash that the studio had hoped, leading to questions about…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":933269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[207,7299,60990,171,17824,372703,53,141234,3279,158374,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-933268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-box-office","tag-disney","tag-dwayne-johnson","tag-entertainment","tag-moana","tag-moana-2","tag-movies","tag-tangled","tag-the-odyssey","tag-toy-story-5","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116915873139566713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933268","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=933268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}