The Rock’s live-action Moana was supposed to be one of Disney’s biggest summer weapons. Instead, the movie opened far below expectations and could leave the studio staring at a loss of up to $125 million.
The Disney remake earned $43 million in the United States and Canada over its opening weekend, bringing its worldwide launch to $95 million. That landed well below the projected $130 million global opening and immediately raised questions about whether audiences were already sick of Moana.
Deadline estimates the film could lose between $100 million and $125 million in its first cycle, even if it eventually reaches $250 million at the worldwide box office.
“Moana stands to lose between $100 million and $125 million in the title’s first cycle after a $95 million worldwide opening.”
That is a brutal result for a movie carrying a production budget of around $250 million before marketing. The global promotional campaign is estimated to have cost another $145 million, putting an enormous amount of pressure on the movie to become a monster hit.
The problem may not be that fans suddenly stopped caring about Moana. Disney may have simply gone back to the same island far too quickly. The live-action movie arrived less than two years after the animated Moana 2 crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide. Families had already paid to see another Moana adventure in theaters, and many apparently did not feel any urgency to buy tickets for a remake of the original story so soon afterward. One film finance veteran could not understand why Disney placed the remake in 2026 while Moana 2 and Toy Story 5 were still fresh.
“Why they even considered a release date in 2026 blows my mind.”
Disney essentially put several of its own family movies in direct competition. Moana opened while Toy Story 5 was still earning solid business, with Minions & Monsters also fighting for the same parents and children.
That competition hurt the movie overseas, where Moana was even beaten by Toy Story 5 in family-heavy markets such as Mexico and Brazil. The international opening finished at $52 million, far below what Disney needed from a summer movie carrying this kind of price tag.
The weak launch becomes even uglier when compared to Disney’s live-action Snow White. That movie opened with $87 million worldwide and $42.2 million domestically after months of controversy. Moana had none of that baggage, yet finished only slightly ahead.
The remake also entered theaters with huge online interest. Its first trailer collected 182 million views in 24 hours, making it Disney’s second-most-watched live-action trailer outside Marvel and Lucasfilm. Plenty of people watched the trailer. Far fewer rushed to theaters.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson returned as Maui and was said to have received at least $20 million upfront. That kind of salary is normal for one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but it made an already expensive production even harder to drag into profit.
The film was originally expected to begin production before the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Shooting eventually started in July 2024 and lasted six months across Hawaii and a water-tank production in Georgia.
Post-production then took 60 weeks because the movie contained around 2,000 visual-effects shots. The combination of live-action filming, water work and heavy CGI sent costs through the roof.
The marketing campaign did not help the movie separate itself from the animated version either. The trailers and promotional material presented familiar characters, familiar songs and familiar scenes without giving audiences a strong reason to pay for the same story again.
Online reactions repeatedly attacked the visuals, the muted colors and Maui’s wig. Some viewers also felt the footage looked more like an AI recreation than a major Disney production. One reaction summed up the problem in a single line.
“It looks like someone uploaded Moana to AI and asked what it would look like in live action.”
Another viewer questioned how Disney managed to flatten the natural beauty of the setting.
“How did they make a beautiful place so dull?”
Director Thomas Kail and the filmmakers chose not to radically change the story or fill the movie with new musical numbers because they did not want to alienate fans of the animated film. Only one new song, “Along the Way,” was added.
That safe approach may have backfired. Instead of feeling fresh, the remake looked like an expensive recreation of a movie audiences could already watch at home.
Disney still believes positive audience reactions could give Moana stronger legs in the weeks ahead. The movie received an A- CinemaScore and currently holds a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, suggesting the people who bought tickets generally enjoyed it.
Women made up 66% of the opening-weekend audience, and Disney hopes that group will continue supporting the movie as the summer schedule shifts toward male-driven films such as The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Strong reactions from paying customers may keep Moana alive, but the financial hole is already deep. Even reaching $250 million worldwide may not stop the movie from losing nine figures.
Disney can point to merchandise, streaming, music and theme-park value as reasons the Moana franchise remains powerful. The two animated movies have already generated millions through toys and music while collecting more than 1.5 billion hours watched on Disney+.
That does not erase the bigger mistake. Disney took a franchise audiences clearly love, rushed another version into theaters and gave families little reason to see it immediately.
The Rock’s live-action Moana may not be a bad movie, but Disney’s timing turned a potential summer hit into a costly warning. After Moana 2 made more than $1 billion, the studio apparently assumed audiences were ready to pay for another trip across the ocean. The opening-weekend numbers say many families had already seen enough.
Do you think Disney released the live-action Moana too soon after Moana 2, or are audiences finally getting tired of live-action remakes? Leave your feedback in the comments below.
