Sometimes you can sense when a film isn’t going to make a splash. The right amount of awareness isn’t there, or there is a general disdain towards a project that has turned the masses off. The live-action Moana, which is an adaptation of the popular Disney animated franchise, falls into the latter. Even though when it was announced it seemed like a good idea on paper to make a quick buck, a lot changed from its development to its release date last weekend, which majorly underperformed. If the industry needed proof that audiences won’t just accept anything thrown at them, this is it. Why the film failed to resonate with critics and audiences honestly doesn’t need that much debate. Even though Disney is usually invincible when it comes to stuff like this, Moana felt like such an obvious grab for consumer money that it more than likely had those not completely invested in the titular character and her adventures responding in kind by not turning up.
Pre-sales for Moana never seemed to take off. There were reports that they were just $4 million ahead of its release, and by the time the Thursday preview numbers came in at just $4.5 million, these box office estimates that had it opening between $60-80 million felt insanely optimistic at best. The news was far worse by the time the weekend was over, when the film debuted to just $43.1 million domestic and $95.1 million worldwide. That’s slightly above the maligned and controversial live-action take on Snow White ($42.2 million) and a bit below Tim Burton’s live-action Dumbo ($45.9 million) misfire. Moana’s opening is much more troublesome when you factor in its $250 million budget and reported $145 million marketing spend. When it’s all said and done, Disney is said to lose between $100-$125 million, but will they learn a valuable lesson from a movie that, if it had to be made, maybe it should’ve been made with more time between its release and the animated original?
It Was Much Too Soon For A Live-Action Moana
The most obvious reason this didn’t work, and the reason primarily given since its opening, is that it was far too soon to jump into a live-action take on Moana. The original animated movie came out ten years ago in 2016 and is no doubt beloved, but it’s still so popular that another spin on it felt like a pretty pointless endeavor. The original has cemented itself as one of the stronger recent Disney animated classics, grossing $687 million worldwide and going on to earn Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (“How Far I’ll Go”). Not to mention, after its theatrical run, Moana became a big hit on Disney+, becoming the most-watched feature on the platform. That might seem like a good reason to give Moana the live-action go-ahead, but it really points to why it shouldn’t have happened.
Moana still resonates as an animated fixture and a merchandise cash cow, with a reported $22 million sold in toys and $26 million earned in music streams across the two animated movies. Families and children alike still flock to Moana on Disney+, so why would they, when moviegoing tends to be very expensive for families, want to spend even more money on a product that is basically the same thing but has been diluted of its vibrancy? It was far easier to spend the time at home watching Moana content and using their theatrical time for what felt like more original family content in Toy Story 5 and Minions & Monsters.
Complicating matters more was the release of Moana 2 just two years ago. That film was intended to be a Disney+ release as a miniseries, but it was reworked as a theatrical release. The move paid off for Disney because, even though reviews were weaker, Moana 2 outperformed its predecessor and grossed $1.059 billion globally. It represented a win for Disney because the pivot proved to be lucrative, but it certainly derailed the long-term goals of the live-action take. The animated movie franchise had a release that wasn’t all that long ago theatrically, and the sequel likely performed very well on Disney+ as well. Whereas the Lilo & Stitch live-action film, which was a huge hit last year after opening to $183 million on its way to $1 billion worldwide, had more than 20 years to make audiences miss the IP and long for something different, Moana wasn’t afforded that luxury. Most of the Disney live-action films have performed well financially thanks primarily to nostalgia, but Moana wasn’t even given a chance to let any nostalgia grow.
The Live-Action Moana Felt Like An Obvious Cash Grab
When the live-action Moana was announced, it didn’t feel as egregious given the fact that Moana 2’s theatrical destiny hadn’t been decided. Dwayne Johnson, who voiced the demigod Maui in the animated version and transitions into the live-action adaptation, announced the film in April 2023, nearly a year before Moana 2 was announced as being retooled for the theatrical treatment. At first, the live-action Moana felt like business as usual from Disney, but with Moana 2 ultimately releasing and claiming a lot of family money, it soon felt like their most obvious cash grab to date.
To be fair, Disney tried to get around this by shifting the release date for the live-action version. The movie was already early in production when Moana 2’s new plans were announced, and Disney realized that Thanksgiving 2024 was in need of a family release. The live-action Moana then moved from June 27, 2025, to its current release date, but that really didn’t create enough distance to avoid the film feeling like it wasn’t a money grab in disguise. Consumers have become smarter with their hard-earned cash during these times, which is why, beyond the truly faithful (the exits and audience response were good from those who saw it), Moana appeared to be a hard stop.
Moana 2 had an eight-year gap between its release and the debut of the original film. The urgency was there to see the continued adventures of the film’s energetic titular character, which made it feel less like an obvious ploy to get families to spend money on a ticket. The live-action adaptations of Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid might have preyed on the nostalgic feelings of millennials wanting to share these films with their kids, but they had the benefit of years between the release of their animated and live-action counterparts. Disney may have thought families would spend on anything to do with Moana, but they proved with their purses and wallets that they won’t be fooled into something that stinks of reduced quality for a quick buck.
The Live-Action Moana Didn’t Justify Its Existence
Judging from the reviews for Moana (34 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), this live-action adaptation felt more soulless than most. Many of the complaints stemmed from the film feeling like a shot-for-shot remake but not as good. There was also the issue of how live-action the movie actually was. Human characters looked like they inhabited an alternate animated world that looked a bit uglier than the original film, despite its hefty price tag.
Even though some of the other live-action Disney films do offer more of the same, some of them add story beats, songs, or even new scenes to spice things up a bit. Aladdin had a full-on Bollywood-inspired sequence that brought new life to that adaptation while The Little Mermaid gave Ariel and Prince Eric more character agency that added more dimensions to their characters and, in the case of Ariel, made her a more vital player during the film’s climax against Ursula.
Moana didn’t really offer anything new, and it was obvious even in its marketing campaign. Nothing felt fresh, and it gave off a vibe that it was going to be obviously recycled. Director Thomas Kail reportedly declined to add a new live-action musical number into the film, and while I’m not saying it would’ve turned this ship around entirely, it would’ve helped to offer up some distinction between the two films. A new song was added (“Along the Way”), but it plays during the end credits. This isn’t enough to make this version feel like a necessity.
The Release Date Didn’t Help
Releasing Moana on this particular weekend may have seemed like a good idea initially, but as summer played out, it was clear that the competition it faced from other family offerings was stiff. Hell, one of the big behemoths of competition came from the Mouse House itself.
Toy Story 5 opened a few weeks before $159.6 million and was still going strong, earning $19 million in its fourth weekend for a running total of $404.2 million domestic. Then there was Illumination’s Minions & Monsters, which underperformed at its Fourth of July opening ($37 million) but still held decently against Toy Story 5 and Moana in weekend two, with a gross of $21.1 million. The offerings for families were too spread out, and Moana was bound to suffer in some capacity, especially if the quality wasn’t there.
Moana may have benefited more from a 2027 release. Disney was aware that Toy Story 5 was on their 2026 summer calendar, so why date Moana here other than being greedy? They were wise, I suppose, to release before The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but that’s faint praise at this point. A 2027 release would’ve created more distance from Moana 2 and potentially less family competition.
Why Was The Budget So High?
This is a question that has plagued the recent box office misfires of Supergirl ($170-$180 million budget) and Masters of the Universe ($170-$200 million+ budget). These movies are simply too expensive, and Moana, being a $250 million film that looks cheap in so many ways, makes it baffling that so much money was poured into it for mediocre results.
It might be crazy to suggest Disney could’ve done this for under $100 million, so let’s throw out a figure of maybe $150 million as a production cost. The conversation would still be concerning about the film’s opening weekend, but the risk is far lower. Reportedly, the film’s combination of live-action and VFX is why the budget ballooned so high, and that worked alongside a six-month shoot in Hawaii, a water tank shoot in Georgia, and 60 weeks of post-production. Moana is no doubt an expensive endeavor, but $250 million feels very steep.
Then there is Dwayne Johnson. A once valuable box office player who has seen his pull subside in recent years. The actor reportedly received his normal $20 million upfront fee for the project, but if he’s not putting butts in the seats like he used to, shouldn’t that fee be adjusted a bit? He would normally receive a percentage of the box office in his deal, but that won’t happen with the grosses that Moana is likely to bring in. Just a note that when looking at these huge budgets, the salaries of the so-called big names should probably be evaluated too.
Is There a Silver Lining?
The upside for Moana is that it was well-received by the audiences who saw it. The film has a 90 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes (higher than the 89 percent of the animated version and the 85 percent for Moana 2), and it received an “A-” CinemaScore from opening-day moviegoers. The female audience also showed up huge at 66 percent, which, should there be any legs, bodes well for incoming competition dominated by males (this weekend it’s The Odyssey).
Disney also came off a big live-action win with Lilo & Stitch last year ($1.038 billion globally) and even Mufasa: The Lion King legged it out during the holiday season of 2024 to $723 million. Not to mention, the live-action Tangled is moving full steam ahead after losing its way when Snow White bombed, but received new life when Lilo & Stitch became a hit. That film should work perfectly since the animated movie came out in 2010, has a solid following, and enough time has passed to take advantage of the nostalgia. Had Disney been smarter with this version of Moana, by not greenlighting it at all or letting more time pass, we’d be discussing something much different about this Disney property.
Moana is now playing in theaters nationwide.
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