Disney’s Live-Action “Moana” Sinks At The Box Office With Soft $95 Million Global Debut

Disney’s live-action remake of Moana just launched into choppy water. The Dwayne Johnson-starrer topped the domestic box office with $43 million in North America and $95 million worldwide, yet the opening landed well below expectations for a film carrying a reported $250 million production budget. The debut also fell short of both the 2016 animated original and 2024’s billion-dollar hit Moana 2, adding another disappointing chapter to Disney’s increasingly uneven remake strategy.

Directed by Thomas Kail, the film stars Catherine Laga’aia as Moana alongside Johnson, who reprises his role as Maui. While audiences awarded the remake an A- CinemaScore and a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, critics were far less enthusiastic. The film currently sits at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of Disney’s lowest-rated live-action adaptations.

Much of the criticism centered on the film’s existence rather than its execution. Reviewers argued that revisiting a beloved animated feature only two years after Moana 2 left little room for nostalgia. The Hollywood Reporter described the remake as “a photocopy of a masterpiece,” while IndieWire called it “creatively unnecessary.” The Daily Beast labeled it “a disaster,” and The Guardian dismissed it as “a superfluous piece of monetisable content.” Even reviews on the positive end of the spectrum acknowledged its familiarity, with Variety praising the craftsmanship while still noting the film’s dogged faithfulness to its animated predecessor.

The result raises fresh questions about Disney’s remake pipeline after several recent disappointments. Snow White went pale at the box office last year, while Peter Pan & Wendy, Pinocchio and The Haunted Mansion also failed to generate the momentum the studio once enjoyed with titles such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. With audiences increasingly asking what these remakes add beyond updated visuals, Moana may become the clearest sign yet that Disney’s live-action formula is losing its box-office magic.