Low Debut for ‘Moana’ Deepens Disney’s Live-Action

Walt Disney Co.’s Moana debuted to $43 million in ticket sales in the US and Canada this weekend, a disappointing haul in a franchise that has otherwise delivered strong profits for the company’s film studio and consumer products division.

(Bloomberg) — Walt Disney Co.’s Moana debuted to $43 million in ticket sales in the US and Canada this weekend, a disappointing haul in a franchise that has otherwise delivered strong profits for the company’s film studio and consumer products division. The opening sales are in keeping with that of a handful of other recent high-budget, live-action remakes of animated films from Disney, such as last year’s Snow White, that ultimately became unprofitable laggards at the box office.

Moana, which cost $250 million to produce, retreads the plot of the 2016 animated film of the same name based on the fictitious Polynesian island of Motunui. It stars Dwayne Johnson in the role of demi-god Maui and Catherine Laga’aia as Moana, the intrepid daughter of village chief Tui who leaves the island and battles a volcanic demon. The poor performance of the live-action remake stands in stark contrast to the beloved original, which is the most-streamed movie in the US since 2020, according to Nielsen.

The animated Moana 2, which came out in theaters last November, was a huge hit and generated more than $1 billion at the box office. The latest film holds just a 35% approval rating with critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The ticket sales of Disney’s recent live-action remakes have broadly halved compared with the studio’s entries in the 2010s.

The Little Mermaid in 2023 and Mufasa: The Lion King in 2024 took in $569.6 million and $723 million, respectively. While those sums are defendable, they’re a fraction of what similar pictures such as The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King sold in movie tickets between 2016 and 2019. Each of those films took in almost or more than $1 billion.

Last year’s Lilo & Stitch, was a notable exception and success, also achieving more than $1 billion at the box office. During the pandemic, Disney released several live-action remakes including Mulan, Pinocchio and Peter Pan & Wendy directly on its flagship Disney+ streaming service. David Gross, the

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author of a popular movie industry newsletter, wrote that “the average interval of time between the previous episode and the remake is 27 years. During that time, a new generation of kids watch the movie at home, and original fans get to enjoy it again. The audience expands.” Releasing a live-action remake just 10 years after the original animated Moana, and just two years after that film’s sequel, was too short a turnaround to cultivate new moviegoers, Gross argues. To be sure, Disney films that generate low sales in cinemas can still find success later through pay-per-view or draw large audiences to Disney+. Despite critics’ poor view of the Moana live-action film, audiences on Rotten Tomatoes give it an approval rating of 90%. Still, Moana’s opening hampers the chances of a live-action sequel or spinoff entry in the franchise. It’s one of Disney’s lows this summer, along with the...

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