{"id":762792,"date":"2026-07-14T17:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T17:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/762792\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T17:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T17:46:09","slug":"moana-box-office-bomb-can-disney-keep-live-action-remakes-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/762792\/","title":{"rendered":"Moana Box Office Bomb: Can Disney Keep Live-Action Remakes Going?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn \u201cMoana<\/a>,\u201d the Polynesian heroine sings about the gravitational pull she feels to return to the water. Disney<\/a>, the studio behind the live-action remake of the 2016 animated musical, might have been wise to ignore the impulse to go back to the sea \u2026 at least so soon.<\/p>\n

\n\tArriving a decade after the original and just two years after the animated sequel, \u201cMoana\u201d opened far below expectations<\/a> with $43 million in North America and $95 million globally. It\u2019s a terrible start for a movie that cost a staggering $250 million to produce and roughly $120 million more to promote. Unless ticket sales can rebound, \u201cMoana\u201d could be a costly lesson as Disney runs low on properties to revisit.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDisney\u2019s strategy is dependent on whether audiences see the remake as an event or a duplicate,\u201d says analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. \u201cThis was the latter. People wanted \u2018Moana 3,\u2019 not a remake of the original.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe studio, which pioneered the modern trend of live-action remakes, has already cycled through much of its animated library, having reimagined or spun off \u201cCinderella,\u201d \u201cThe Lion King,\u201d \u201cAladdin,\u201d \u201cMulan,\u201d \u201cDumbo,\u201d \u201cThe Little Mermaid,\u201d \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d and \u201cLady and the Tramp.\u201d Without much left in the vault to raid, Disney has begun updating properties from this century, with \u201cMoana\u201d being the most recent to get the real-life treatment. <\/p>\n

\n\tJust last year, the live-action \u201cLilo & Stitch,\u201d adapted from the 2002 animated movie, became a billion-dollar hit. So it\u2019s not that audiences are tiring of these remakes. But they aren\u2019t going to theaters just because Disney is dusting off a favorite and giving it a CG makeover, especially when the original is readily available to watch on Disney+.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe takeaway for Disney has to be, how long does it take for an animated film to become a classic? As we just saw, it\u2019s not about how successful the last film in the series is,\u201d says David A. Gross, who runs the FranchiseRe movie consulting firm. \u201cIt takes time to be a classic, not just success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough it\u2019s too soon to label \u201cMoana\u201d a classic, the property is hugely popular with family crowds. The 2016 animated film is the most-watched movie on Disney+, and the sequel made more than $1 billion at the box office. Yet the goodwill didn\u2019t translate for the remake: \u201cMoana\u201d launched on par with 2025\u2019s bomb \u201cSnow White.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tCritics derided the live-action \u201cMoana\u201d as a shot-for-shot retread of the first. Yet audiences were pleased with the movie, which holds a solid \u201cA-\u201d grade on CinemaScore exit polls. The studio hopes that favorable word-of-mouth will help the film stick around at the box office. That happened with Disney\u2019s 2024\u2019s \u201cLion King\u201d prequel \u201cMufasa,\u201d which opened to a soft $35 million but eventually climbed to $722 million globally. However, that movie opened around Christmas and had virtually free rein on the big screen through January and February. \u201cMoana,\u201d meanwhile, has competition from Disney and Pixar\u2019s \u201cToy Story 5\u201d and Universal and Illumination\u2019s \u201cMinions & Monsters.\u201d And although \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d is aimed at older moviegoers, it\u2019ll be taking the entire footprint of premium large formats starting on Thursday. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOpening weekend is important, but \u2018Moana\u2019 is going to be about long-term playability,\u201d says Rentrak\u2019s head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian. \u201cThat means you don\u2019t want to see a 60-70% second-weekend drop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the case of \u201cMoana,\u201d a decade could have been enough time to spark nostalgia. Problem is, the newest oceanic adventure was released in close proximity to \u201cMoana 2,\u201d which opened on Thanksgiving 2024. That wasn\u2019t always the plan. \u201cMoana 2\u201d was originally commissioned as a television show, which began development simultaneously with the live-action remake. When Disney retooled the series into a theatrical sequel, the studio delayed the revival a year to separate the projects. Even so, moviegoers haven\u2019t had much time to miss the likes of Moana, Maui and Hei Hei.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe triumph of \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d and misfire of \u201cMoana\u201d suggest there\u2019s an art to the timing of these revivals. Disney has waited 27 years on average before revisiting an animated film, according to Gross. That distance has produced some of the studio\u2019s biggest hits, including 2017\u2019s \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d and 2019\u2019s \u201cThe Lion King\u201d and \u201cAladdin,\u201d each of which topped $1 billion worldwide. Kids who grew up on those late \u201990s and early 2000s films were old enough to bring their own children to theaters.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDuring that time, the remakes added an entirely new audience,\u201d Gross says. \u201cIt\u2019s been a very successful strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s such a thing as waiting too long to return. New takes on \u201cSnow White\u201d (1937) and \u201cDumbo\u201d (1941) missed the mark because those properties no longer hold the same cultural relevance.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough a live-action \u201cFrozen\u201d feels inevitable, \u201cTangled\u201d is the only remake that\u2019s currently filming. Disney put that production on hold after \u201cSnow White\u201d bombed but revived it after \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d scored just a few months later<\/a>. The original movie about Rapunzel was introduced in 2010, putting the \u201cTangled\u201d reboot in the nostalgia sweet spot. Moving forward, Disney is expected to prioritize a live-action sequel to \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d and spinoffs about the stepsisters from \u201cCinderella\u201d and Gaston, the brawny villain from \u201cBeauty and the Beast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDisney will keep making these. For every one that doesn\u2019t do well, there will be a \u2018Lilo & Stitch\u2019 that sets the world on fire,\u201d Dergarabedian says. \u201cThe studio just has to keep the budgets in line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith a gargantuan budget, \u201cMoana\u201d will require at least $600 million to break even. (Theater owners get to keep about half of box office returns.) With a similar box office voyage as \u201cSnow White,\u201d which left the big screen with $205 million globally against a $250 million budget, \u201cMoana\u201d could lose more than $100 million theatrically. Compare that with the very profitable \u201cLilo & Stitch,\u201d which cost a relatively modest $100 million without any major stars to command mega-paydays. For \u201cMoana,\u201d Dwayne Johnson \u2014 reprising his role as the demigod Maui \u2014 was paid close to $30 million as a producer and star and typically negotiates generous backend bonuses. Production on \u201cMoana\u201d was delayed by the 2023 labor strikes, which added a few million to the budget.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney justifies these price tags because movies like \u201cMoana\u201d generate more than just box office dollars. These tentpoles yield lucrative consumer product lines, theme park rides and Disney+ rewatches. \u201cMoana\u201d has fueled more than 22 million toy sales since 2016, inspired attractions across more than 40 Disney theme parks and helped drive 26 billion music streams, including 4.8 billion for \u201cHow Far I\u2019ll Go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo \u201cMoana\u201d won\u2019t be sailing off into the sunset anytime soon. A third animated movie is reportedly in the works<\/a> and has the potential to become a hit. But Disney may want to take more time between trips to the island of Motunui.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In \u201cMoana,\u201d the Polynesian heroine sings about the gravitational pull she feels to return to the water. Disney,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[3716,88,44069,206],"class_list":["post-762792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-disney","tag-entertainment","tag-moana","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}