Why Moana Sank With Its Box Office Opening

Disney‘s live-action Moana did not make the summer splash that the studio had hoped, leading to questions about not only what might be in store at the box office for the Dwayne Johnson-led title but also the potential for developing remakes of other animated favorites.

After last year’s Lilo & Stitch had a record-breaking $183 million 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 — starring Johnson as the voice of demigod Maui who helps the titular girl (Auli’i Cravalho) save her island — has become a beloved property for families and counts as the most-watched feature on Disney+. And, of course, Moana 2 confirmed the excitement for new theatrical entries from the franchise when it hit $1 billion after its November 2024 release — although there is more to discuss with that one in a moment.

Despite 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’s remakes and is particularly tough given its $250 million production budget. Other misfires included last year’s $42.2 million opening for Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot’s Snow White and the $45.9 million bow for 2019’s 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.

Starring Catherine Laga’aia 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 “verified hot” with a 90 percent Rotten Tomatoes audience rating.

While Lilo & Stitch had given audiences more than two decades to miss the first one — and likely had the advantage of millennial parents wanting to share the story with their children — Moana was the most recent original to get Disney’s 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.

It also faced competition for families from such summer titles as Disney’s own Toy Story 5 and Illumination’s Minions & Monsters. That said, the latter may have dealt with some burnout of its own in opening over the Fourth of July weekend to the lowest domestic sum for the Despicable Me franchise.

“Everything comes down to timing in this business, and it just did not work in Moana’s favor in this case,” 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’s 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’s successes was Universal’s live-action remake of 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon.

“It’s always a case-by-case basis,” says Robbins about which Disney’s 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’s Robin Hood, Bambi, The Aristocats and The Sword in the Stone. But solid returns on recent offerings like The Little Mermaid and Mufasa prove that audiences can still get invested in fresh looks at popular characters. “Who knows where Disney goes from here?”

Disney 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’s disappointing 2025 launch, the studio opted to pause development on Tangled but resumed its progress 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.

The Moana team can take heart knowing that the live-action movie has its share of vocal supporters. “Listen to the people who showed up, rather than the ones hating it unseen just because,” Role Models screenwriter Timothy Dowling posted 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’s R-rated The Odyssey.

As for Johnson — who was cited as a key draw for those who did check out this weekend’s film — Moana 2 was a bright spot at the box office amid the star’s 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’s Jumanji: Open World, which will hope to excite fans despite opening just a week after both Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three.

For the bigger 2026 picture, the spring was full of promise, thanks to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Michael — which both crossed the billion-dollar mark globally — 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’s Masters of the Universe. The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day are two behemoths waiting in the wings later this month.

“It has been a wild summer,” admits Robbins, who points out that the season’s biggest smashes are having to do some heavy lifting for the industry at large. “Now 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 — and maybe for the year.”