The 2016 Disney animated filmMoana made quite a splash, cementing itself as a modern hit. The studio tried to recapture that magic with a live-action version of the film, but audiences haven’t shown the same interest.
The new Moana starring DwayneJohnson, FrankieAdams, and CatherineLaga'aia came out on July 9. Ten years after the original and two years after the animated sequel, the movie opened with disappointing numbers. On a $250 million production budget and roughly $120 million for marketing, the Moana box office saw just $43 million in North America and $95 million globally.
Unless ticket sales make a big rebound, the film could lose Disney over $100 million. Varietyspoke to several experts about why Moana isn’t performing as expected.
“Disney’s strategy is dependent on whether audiences see the remake as an event or a duplicate,” analyst JeffBock of Exhibitor Relations told the outlet. “This was the latter. People wanted ‘Moana 3,’ not a remake of the original.”
The studio has pioneered adapting animated films into modern live-action remakes. They’ve redone films such as Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Lady and the Tramp to mixed success.
In 2025, the success of the live-action Lilo & Stitch showed Disney that audiences will still show up for remakes. The film was adapted from the 2002 animated version and made over $1 billion.
Disney has begun to run out of classic films to turn into live-action versions, pushing them towards newer successes like Moana.
“The takeaway for Disney has to be, how long does it take for an animated film to become a classic? As we just saw, it’s not about how successful the last film in the series is,” David A. Gross, who runs the FranchiseRe consulting firm, told Variety. “It takes time to be a classic, not just success.”
It may feel rushed to call Moana a “classic” after a decade, but its popularity is indisputable. The film is the most-watched movie on Disney+ and the 2024 sequel made over $1 billion at the box office.
Gross explained that timing is key to the success of remakes. He revealed that, on average, Disney waits 27 years to remake an animated movie. Older films that got remakes, such as Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, both became billion-dollar hits. The audiences who are nostalgic for them grew up in the late 1990s and 2000s and are now old enough to take their children to the theaters.
“During that time, the remakes added an entirely new audience,” Gross said. “It’s been a very successful strategy.”
Moana is currently in theaters.
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