Disney's 'Moana' live-action remake opened to just $43M, barely above the 'Snow White' disaster. Analysts say the close copy, premature timing, and crowded market sank the film, raising doubts on the studio's remake strategy.
Disney's live-action "Moana" opened to $43 million domestically, a result barely above the disastrous start of last year's "Snow White" remake. The miss is raising questions about the studio's reliance on turning animated hits into live-action films.
"'Moana's' performance this weekend certainly has everyone questioning the animation-to-live-action strategy often employed by Disney," said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Rentrak.
The remake stuck close to the 2016 original. Business Insider's Gabbi Shaw called it "an almost shot-for-shot (and line-for-line, in some cases) remake of a five-star masterpiece." That approach avoided the creative backlash that sank "Snow White." It also gave audiences little reason to leave home. "The central conundrum with all of these remakes," Shaw wrote, "is that you could simply put on the superior animated film."
Box-office analyst Scott Mendelson said the film generated almost no buzz. "Nobody was talking about it, for better or worse," he told reporters.
The timing hurt as well. Disney released the original "Moana" a decade ago, then followed with a $1 billion animated sequel in 2024. "This story wasn't ready to come back, and audiences are not rushing to see it," said box-office analyst David Gross in a Sunday report.
Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics at Fandango, said the remake arrived too soon for nostalgia to take hold. "This live-action take arrived at least half a decade too early if the goal was for the box office to benefit from nostalgia and a generational hand-me-down to kids who didn't see the original film in theaters."
Family-friendly competition also crowded the schedule. Disney launched "Moana" three weeks after its own "Toy Story 5" and a week after Universal's "Minions & Monsters." The World Cup is drawing viewers as well. "The marketplace is a bit oversaturated with PG-rated family fare," Dergarabedian said. Mendelson noted that hit family films sometimes help each other by cross-promoting through trailers. "If people had wanted to see 'Moana,' they would have seen 'Moana,'" he said.
The result suggests Disney's live-action remake strategy has diminishing returns, especially for recent animated hits that already have a fresh sequel. A miss of this size for one of the studio's most valuable franchises could force executives to reconsider which properties get the live-action treatment. Disney has announced remakes of "Tangled" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Those projects now face a cooler reception from Wall Street, analysts said.
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