{"id":32137,"date":"2026-08-08T09:14:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32137"},"modified":"2026-08-08T09:14:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:14:51","slug":"dwayne-johnson-addresses-moana-mixed-reviews-after-box-office-flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32137","title":{"rendered":"Dwayne Johnson Addresses &#8216;Moana&#8217; Mixed Reviews After Box Office Flop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/dwayne-johnson\/\" id=\"auto-tag_dwayne-johnson_1\" data-tag=\"dwayne-johnson\">Dwayne Johnson<\/a> is speaking out on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/disney-2\/\" id=\"auto-tag_disney-2_1\" data-tag=\"disney-2\">Disney<\/a>\u2018s live-action<em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/moana\/\" id=\"auto-tag_moana_1\" data-tag=\"moana\">Moana<\/a> <\/em>not exactly being a hit with critics. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tJohnson, who voiced Maui in the original 2016 animated film <em>Moana<\/em> and its 2024 follow-up, recently spoke to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/dwayne-johnson-says-moana-s-mixed-reviews-are-just-the-way-it-goes-the-culture-really-stood-up-exclusive-12036255\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">People<\/a><\/em> magazine about how the movie\u2019s early reviews started positively before the reception shifted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cOur first two reviews came out. I\u2019ll never forget it\u2026 They were amazing. I was like, wow,\u201d the actor recalled, before adding that then \u201cit went another way \u2014 as sometimes happens. That\u2019s just the way it goes because we\u2019re in this business.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/moana-review-dwayne-johnson-catherine-lagaaia-disney-1236641123\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s<\/em><\/a> chief film critic, David Rooney, did, however, give the film a favorable review, calling it \u201cone of Disney\u2019s better live-action remakes.\u201d He added, \u201cThe new <em>Moana<\/em> is a captivating family entertainment that deserves to find an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe live-action <em>Moana, <\/em>released in theaters last month, earned a 31 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, while its audience score was significantly higher at 88 percent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe <em>Smashing Machine<\/em> star added that he and his wife, Lauren Hashian, had many conversations about the response. \u201cThe challenge was, OK, let\u2019s remember, though, what\u2019s going to be beyond this opening weekend. Let\u2019s remember what\u2019s happening right now and the noise that\u2019s happening right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cIf you love it, great. If you don\u2019t, no problem,\u201d the <em>Jumanji<\/em> actor said. But what meant the most to him was that \u201cthe culture really stood up,\u201d as Johnson is of Samoan heritage. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cBecause of me and our kids who can now look at the big screen and go, \u2018That\u2019s us for the first time on a big screen. That\u2019s us up there. How cool is that?\u2019,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tCatherine Laga\u2019aia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-features\/catherine-lagaaia-moana-disney-nepo-baby-interview-1236639331\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-features\/catherine-lagaaia-moana-disney-nepo-baby-interview-1236639331\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">starred in the title role<\/a>, taking over from Auli\u02bbi Cravalho, who voiced the character in the animated films. Johnson reprised his role as Maui in the live-action adaptation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe film, though, didn\u2019t make waves at the box office, grossing $264 million worldwide against a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/moana-disney-live-action-remake-box-office-dwayne-johnson-1236647014\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/moana-disney-live-action-remake-box-office-dwayne-johnson-1236647014\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported $250 million production budget<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dwayne Johnson is speaking out on Disney\u2018s live-action Moana not exactly being a hit with critics. Johnson, who voiced Maui in the original 2016 animated film Moana and its 2024 follow-up, recently spoke to People magazine about how the movie\u2019s early reviews started positively before the reception shifted. \u201cOur first two reviews came out. I\u2019ll&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MCDMOAN_WD031.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}