Disney's live-action Moana opens below expectations at box office

Disney’s live-action Moana opened with $43,142,824 in U.S. and Canada, a result that landed well below the $60 million to $65 million domestic range the film had been tracking toward. The movie, directed by Thomas Kail and starring Dwayne Johnson as Maui and Catherine Lagaaia as Moana, also reached $95,142,824 worldwide in its first weekend.

The opening matters because it was not just a soft start for one title. Moana played in 3,827 North American theaters and still fell short of expectations for a property tied to one of Disney’s most durable modern animated brands. The production budget was reportedly $250 million before marketing, a level that puts added pressure on every weekend of the run.

The remake arrives with a built-in comparison that works against it. Disney’s 2016 animated Moana grossed about $684.3 million worldwide, while Moana 2 gave the franchise another major lift only recently. Against that backdrop, the live-action version’s debut looks less like a one-off disappointment than a test of whether audiences still see value in revisiting the same material with new packaging.

That question has already shadowed Disney’s remake slate this year. Snow White opened to $43 million domestically, while Lilo & Stitch opened to $146 million and went on to become 2025’s first Hollywood film to top $1 billion worldwide. The spread between those results suggests that brand recognition alone no longer guarantees a turnout, even for titles with deep familiarity and built-in name value.

The weak launch also comes as Disney has paused development on a live-action Tangled, intensifying scrutiny of the company’s remake strategy. Moana still finished No. 1 at the domestic box office for the weekend, but the size of the opening has sharpened the broader debate inside Hollywood about remake fatigue, audience confusion over what justifies a retread, and whether Disney can keep turning animated favorites into reliable theatrical events.