{"id":6995,"date":"2026-07-15T21:30:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=6995"},"modified":"2026-07-15T21:30:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:30:22","slug":"live-action-moana-underperforms-at-the-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=6995","title":{"rendered":"Live-Action \u2018Moana\u2019 Underperforms at the Box Office"},"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>We have answered the question of how far\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/screencrush.com\/tags\/moana\/\">Moana<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>will go.<\/p>\n<p>Answer: Not as far as expected.<\/p>\n<p>Despite its connection to one of the most popular animated movies of the 21st century \u2014 and the presence of one of the animated version\u2019s big stars \u2014 2026\u2019s live-action remake of\u00a0<em>Moana<\/em> sank to the bottom of the box-office ocean over the weekend. According to estimates, the film earned approximately $43 million in its first three days of release.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, experts predicted the film would earn at least $60 million over the weekend, with some predictions suggesting it could earn well above that. Instead, its $43 million is\u00a0a fair amount under the $56.6 million the original\u00a0animated\u00a0<em>Moana\u00a0<\/em>earned in its opening weekend a decade ago, and barely a third of what\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/screencrush.com\/tags\/moana-2\/\">Moana 2<\/a><\/em> took in during its debut in theaters back in 2024. That film did an astounding $139.7 million in its opening weekend.<\/p>\n<div class=\"single-post-image \">\n<figure class=\"img-tag has-sizer v3 alignnone\">\n<div class=\"theframe \" data-loading=\"lazy\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/townsquare.media\/site\/442\/files\/2026\/07\/attachment-mna-tp2-0087943-1.jpg?w=980&amp;q=75\" alt=\"Disney\" loading=\"lazy\" onload=\"this.parentNode.parentNode.classList.add('frame-loaded');\" onerror=\"this.parentNode.parentNode.classList.add('broken-image');\" fetchpriority=\"low\" width=\"1622\" height=\"1080\"\/><\/div><figcaption>Disney<\/figcaption><span class=\"visually-hidden\">Disney<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/screencrush.com\/worst-remakes-of-best-movies\/\">The Worst Remakes of the Best Movies<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Those who did see\u00a0<em>Moana\u00a0<\/em>in theaters seemed to enjoy it; they gave the film a solid A- rating on CinemaScore. And it did earn $52 million in international theaters. But there\u2019s no way this was the outcome that <a href=\"https:\/\/screencrush.com\/tags\/disney\/\">Disney<\/a> wanted.<\/p>\n<p>Why did the movie struggle in theaters? To me, there are two obvious reasons. One:\u00a0<em>Moana\u00a0<\/em>came out just 10 years ago \u2014 and\u00a0<em>Moana 2<\/em> came out just two years ago! \u2014 way sooner than is typical\u00a0on Disney\u2019s live-action remake schedule. (Years between <i>Cinderella<\/i>s: 65. Years between\u00a0<em>Pete\u2019s Dragon<\/em>s: 39 years.\u00a0Even\u00a0<em>Lilo &amp; Stitch\u00a0<\/em>was 23 years.)\u00a0<em>Moana\u00a0<\/em>is still comparatively fresh in everyone\u2019s minds, and that\u2019s not even considering the fact that it\u2019s available whenever kids want to watch it on Disney+.<\/p>\n<p>The other major factor: Competition. For the first time in quite a while, families actually have a lot of options to choose from in theaters.\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/screencrush.com\/toy-story-5-kid-review\/\">Toy Story 5<\/a><\/em> came out less than a month ago and\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/screencrush.com\/minions-and-monsters-review-by-kids\/\">Minions &amp; Monsters<\/a><\/em> debuted just last weekend. That family audience got split three ways last weekend, and a lot of those folks decided they could wait on\u00a0<em>Moana.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Does this affect Disney\u2019s plans to make more live-action remakes? I doubt it. They\u2019re already making one of\u00a0<em>Tangled<\/em>, which is only a few years older than\u00a0<em>Moana.\u00a0<\/em>The animated version of that story opened in theaters in 2010.<\/p>\n<div class=\"branded-app-shortcode-inarticle\">\n<div class=\"logo-wrap\" rel=\"fwef\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/townsquare.media\/site\/252\/files\/2022\/01\/attachment-popcrush-1.jpg?w=100\" alt=\"PopCrush logo\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"photogallery-wrapper blog-photogallery \">\n<h2 class=\"photogallery-title\">The Best Letterboxd Reviews<\/h2>\n<div class=\"photogallery-description\">\n<p>We picked 25 of our favorite, funniest, wittiest reviews on the movie app.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/popcrush.com\/rest\/carbon\/api\/scripts.js?mver=63&#038;gver=10&#038;bid=252&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fbtloader.com%2Ftag%3Fo%3D5642230212591616%26upapi%3Dtrue&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.p-n.io%2Fpushly-sdk.min.js%3Fdomain_key%3DQt0jyGgiLtltNrdtnDzncATqSK9PT5Eib9iw&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Ftownsquare.media%2Fpublic%2Fresources%2Fjs%2Fpubcid.min.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fplatform.twitter.com%2Fwidgets.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fapis.google.com%2Fjs%2Fplatform.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fconnect.facebook.net%2Fen_US%2Fsdk.js&#038;urls[]=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.pinterest.com%2Fjs%2Fpinit.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\" async defer data-osano=\"ESSENTIAL\"><\/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>We have answered the question of how far\u00a0Moana\u00a0will go. Answer: Not as far as expected. Despite its connection to one of the most popular animated movies of the 21st century \u2014 and the presence of one of the animated version\u2019s big stars \u2014 2026\u2019s live-action remake of\u00a0Moana sank to the bottom of the box-office ocean&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/townsquare.media\/site\/442\/files\/2026\/07\/attachment-mna-tp3-00086594.jpg?w=1200&q=75&format=natural","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6995","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\/6995","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=6995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}