Disney Is Now Remaking Movies Your Kids Are Still Watching
A month ago, tracking services had Disney's live-action Moana opening between $80 and $105 million domestic, on the way to at least $300 million for its run. On July 6, Global Box Office revised that opening down to $45 to 60 million, and Yahoo reported the $300 million finish is now unlikely. The film hit theaters Friday. We went to press before the weekend numbers existed, and it barely matters. A projection that loses half its value in the final month is the story, whatever Sunday's estimate says.
The fall is stark because the brand never cooled. The 2016 animated Moana earned over $680 million worldwide on a $150 million budget. Moana 2 passed $1 billion in 2024, again on $150 million. The remake reportedly cost around $200 million, and it now chases an opening that might not reach a third of what tracking projected in June.
Critics made it worse. As of Wednesday the film sat at 35 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 55 reviews, the second worst score of any Disney live-action remake, below even Snow White's 39 percent. Thomas Kail directs. Catherine Laga'aia takes the title role, and Dwayne Johnson returns as Maui, which invites the awkward question: returns from what? Moana 2 landed in November 2024, less than two years before this remake. The kids this movie courts are still watching the sequel at home.
The counterargument deserves a hearing. Disney family films have outrun ugly tracking before; parents booking a Saturday matinee do not check Rotten Tomatoes, and July belongs to them. The only new competition on the date was Warner Bros.' R-rated Evil Dead Burn, counterprogramming aimed at a different crowd entirely. If school-holiday holdover power means anything, Moana could still grind out a respectable run.
We doubt it, and the debate about remake fatigue misses the target anyway. Audiences never objected to remakes on principle; they objected to pointless ones. A live-action copy of a film whose animated sequel is still in heavy rotation on children's screens is the definition of pointless, and at $200 million it is expensive pointlessness. Our verdict: the weekend number, high or low, will not redeem the decision. Greenlighting this movie was the mistake, and the tracking collapse just made it visible.
