Disney’s newest live-action remake sailed straight to the top of the box office, but the opening-weekend numbers may not be the celebration the company hoped for.
Disney’s live-action Moana has officially arrived in theaters, bringing audiences back to Motunui with familiar songs, sweeping ocean views, and Dwayne Johnson once again stepping into the role of Maui. However, despite becoming the No. 1 movie in North America during its opening weekend, the film debuted significantly below early expectations, and its reported production budget makes those numbers even more complicated.
Disney’s live-action Moana earned an estimated $43 million from theaters in the United States and Canada during its opening weekend. The movie played in approximately 3,875 domestic theaters after officially opening on July 10th, 2026.
That total was enough to place Moana at No. 1 at the North American box office, ahead of other family-friendly releases including Universal and Illumination’s Minions & Monsters and Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5.
Internationally, the Disney remake earned an additional $52 million across 50 markets, bringing its estimated worldwide opening total to $95 million.
While becoming the weekend’s top movie would ordinarily sound like good news, the live-action Moana reportedly cost approximately $250 million to produce, not including potential marketing expenses. That substantial budget means the movie will likely need strong ticket sales in the weeks ahead to improve its overall theatrical performance.
‘Moana’ Opened Below Early Box Office Expectations
Before its release, the live-action Moana was projected to earn approximately $60 million or more domestically during its opening weekend. Instead, its final estimated total landed at $43 million.
The opening places the film much closer to Disney’s 2025 live-action Snow White, which debuted with approximately $42.2 million in North America, than to some of Disney’s more successful live-action adaptations. Previous remakes, including Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Lilo & Stitch, each eventually earned more than $1 billion worldwide.
The new Moana also arrived only 10 years after the original animated movie and just 19 months after the theatrical release of Moana 2. The animated sequel became a massive success for Disney, earning more than $1 billion worldwide after setting a Thanksgiving opening record with $225 million in 2024.
That unusually short amount of time between projects may have made the live-action remake feel less like a nostalgic return and more like another recent visit to a story audiences already know.
Critics and Audiences Are Divided Over the New ‘Moana’
The live-action adaptation was directed by Thomas Kail and stars Catherine Lagaʻaia as Moana, with Dwayne Johnson returning as Maui after voicing the demigod in the animated films.
Although Lagaʻaia’s performance received praise, critics were considerably less enthusiastic about the film as a whole. One of the most frequent complaints was that the remake followed the 2016 animated movie too closely, with some reviews describing it as an almost shot-for-shot recreation.
At the time of the opening-weekend report, the film held a 34% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audience reactions, however, were more positive.
According to PostTrak data reported by the Associated Press, 63% of moviegoers said they would definitely recommend the film, while 78% of parents said they would recommend it to other parents. The movie also received an A- CinemaScore, suggesting that families who purchased tickets generally responded more favorably than professional critics did.
Those audience scores could become important as Disney looks toward the film’s second and third weekends in theaters. Strong word of mouth sometimes helps family movies remain successful for several weeks, even when their opening numbers fall below expectations.
Disney Faced Major Competition for Family Audiences
The live-action Moana did not enter an empty marketplace.
Universal’s Minions & Monsters finished in second place with an estimated $20.5 million, while Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story 5 earned approximately $18.5 million in third place during its fourth weekend in theaters.
Toy Story 5 had already reached an estimated global total of $879.1 million, while Minions & Monsters had earned $108.3 million domestically following a relatively modest 45% decline from its previous weekend.
With three PG-rated family movies playing in theaters simultaneously, parents had several major releases competing for the same audience, and the cost of taking an entire family to the movies may have forced some guests to choose only one.
Industry analyst Paul Dergarabedian suggested that the problem may not necessarily be “family movie fatigue,” but instead a crowded market creating a limit on how many similar movies can succeed at the same time.
Is Disney’s Live-Action ‘Moana’ a Box Office Flop?
It is still too early to determine the final financial outcome of Disney’s live-action Moana.
Opening-weekend numbers are important, but they do not always tell the entire story, particularly for family movies that can continue drawing audiences throughout the summer. Positive reactions from parents and general moviegoers could help the film maintain momentum in the coming weeks.
However, its $95 million worldwide opening remains a concerning start when compared with its reported $250 million production budget.
The film will also face even more competition as the summer movie season continues. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is scheduled to arrive next, followed by Marvel and Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day the following weekend.
For now, Disney’s live-action Moana can technically claim a No. 1 opening, but whether the movie can navigate its way toward profitability will depend on how well it holds at the box office in the weeks ahead.
What do you think? Did Disney release the live-action Moana too soon after the animated movie and its sequel, or are you still excited to see Moana and Maui return to the big screen?
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