Disney’s live-action “Moana” opened to $43 million domestically over the weekend, a debut that lands among the weakest for the studio’s string of animated-to-live-action remakes despite topping the North American box office chart. The film pulled in another $52 million overseas for a global launch of $95 million, falling well short of the $130 million worldwide figure Disney had targeted heading into release.
The result stings given the film’s reported $250 million production budget before marketing costs, a price tag that puts pressure on the studio to recoup roughly $500 million worldwide just to break even. Analysts now expect Disney could lose close to $100 million on the theatrical run. Box office newsletter publisher David A. Gross said the studio’s live-action remake formula, so reliable in prior years, simply didn’t translate this time, noting the opening falls well short of Disney’s typical performance in this category.
Timing appears to have worked against the film. The animated “Moana 2” grossed more than $1 billion worldwide less than two years ago after debuting around Thanksgiving 2024, leaving audiences with limited appetite to revisit the story so soon in a new format. Disney originally planned the live-action version for 2025 before pushing it back a year to create separation from the sequel, according to prior reporting, but the gap still proved too narrow. Dwayne Johnson, reprising his voice role as Maui in physical form, appears alongside newcomer Catherine Laga’aia as Moana, with Thomas Kail, the “Hamilton” director making his film debut, at the helm.
Critics were largely unimpressed, with the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score landing below even 2025’s “Snow White” remake, another live-action Disney effort that struggled commercially. Audiences responded more warmly, awarding the film a CinemaScore grade of A-minus and a strong PostTrak rating, suggesting the movie satisfied the people who did show up even as it failed to draw a wide crowd.
The film opened into a crowded family marketplace, competing directly with holdovers “Toy Story 5” and “Minions & Monsters,” both of which continued strong runs during “Moana’s” debut weekend. Industry analysts noted this marks the third disappointing tentpole opening of the summer, following underwhelming results for “Supergirl” and “Minions & Monsters” earlier in the season, even as several other summer releases have performed well.
