{"id":34666,"date":"2026-08-09T15:13:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T10:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34666"},"modified":"2026-08-09T15:13:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T10:13:55","slug":"thats-just-the-way-it-goes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34666","title":{"rendered":"That&#8217;s just the way it goes"},"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><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/dwayne-johnson\">Dwayne Johnson<\/a>\u00a0has responded to the poor reviews for the live-action remake of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/film\/every-song-on-the-live-action-moana-soundtrack-3955849\"><i>Moana<\/i><\/a>, saying that\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0\u201cjust the way it goes\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0new version\u00a0of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/brands\/disney\">Disney<\/a>\u00a0film was released in cinemas on July 10, with Johnson reprising his role as the demigod Maui from the 2016 animated original\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/film\/moana-2-soundtrack-heres-every-song-in-the-film-3817476\">its 2024 sequel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The remake did not perform well at the global box office, making $266million (\u00a3197million) against a reported budget of $250million (\u00a3185million), and at the time of writing, it holds at 32 per cent critics\u2019 score on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/moana_2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Rotten Tomatoes<\/i><\/a>, dramatically lower than its audience score of 88 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson has addressed the rough ride it has had from critics in a new interview with <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=\"noopener\"><i>People<\/i><\/a>, where he reflects on the first feedback he received on the film.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur first two reviews came out.\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0never forget it, they were amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cI was like, wow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Moana | Final Trailer | In Theaters July 10\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EEz5xbzYPKI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He then acknowledged that\u00a0subsequent\u00a0reviews were less enthusiastic, saying it \u201cwent another way, as sometimes happens.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0just the way it goes because we\u2019re in this business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe challenge was, OK, let\u2019s remember, though, what\u2019s going to be beyond this opening weekend.\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0remember\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0happening right now and the noise that\u2019s happening right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Disney CEO Josh D\u2019Amaro has also acknowledged that the new\u00a0<i>Moana<\/i>,\u00a0like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/film-reviews\/mandalorian-and-grogu-review-star-wars-pedro-pascal-3946253\"><i>The Mandalorian And Grogu<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0did not meet their box office expectations,\u00a0but stressed that he expected both titles to perform well when they arrive on Disney+. The original\u00a0<i>Moana <\/i>made $643million (\u00a3477million), while <em>Moana 2<\/em> made $1.06billion (\u00a3786million).<\/p>\n<p>Last year,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/film\/dwayne-johnson-isnt-worried-about-smashing-machine-flop-3897837\">Johnson also reflected on the disappointing box office result for\u00a0<i>The Smashing Machine<\/i><\/a>, his A24 drama about the MMA fighter Mark Kerr. \u201cIn our storytelling world, you can\u2019t control box office results,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what I realised you can control is your performance, and your commitment to completely disappear and go elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('consent', 'revoke');\n  fbq('init', '370979561341328');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dwayne Johnson\u00a0has responded to the poor reviews for the live-action remake of\u00a0Moana, saying that\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0\u201cjust the way it goes\u201d. The\u00a0new version\u00a0of the\u00a0Disney\u00a0film was released in cinemas on July 10, with Johnson reprising his role as the demigod Maui from the 2016 animated original\u00a0and\u00a0its 2024 sequel. The remake did not perform well at the global box office,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/dwayne_johnson_moana.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34666","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=34666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}