Disney’s live-action adaptation of the beloved animated film Moana has failed to make a splash at the box office, with an estimated global total of $95 million on its opening weekend. This underwhelming performance puts the House of Mouse’s latest remake just barely ahead of Snow White, which pulled a meager $87.3 million during its opening weekend in 2025.
The split between domestic and international hauls reveals that Moana raked in an estimated $43 million domestically and $52 million internationally. While this still positions the Moana remake in first for the mid-July weekend, it’s clear that the film’s numbers don’t come close to meeting Disney’s lofty expectations.
With high-end projections hoping for a domestic haul of $60 million to $65 million and an international pull of as much as $75 million, the actual numbers are a far cry from what Disney had envisioned. This painful reality is made even more stark by the reported budget of $250 million for the live-action Moana movie (via Variety).
Disney’s woes at the box office are compounded by the fact that Snow White’s disappointing performance last year resulted in the indefinite delay of the live-action Tangled movie. Although progress on that front was stalled for some time, it has since picked up steam with new additions to the cast following the success of the live-action Lilo and Stitch movie.
For now, there’s no sign that Disney will course correct again as Moana fails to impress. In the meantime, Variety has reported that Tangled is expected to premiere in 2028. Other remakes in development include live-action Bambi, Hercules, and Lilo and Stitch 2, as well as a project based on Beauty and the Beast villain, Gaston.
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In other box office news, Universal Pictures and Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic has passed $1 billion globally. It’s an update that saw the movie reach an impressive milestone as it became the first biopic in history to reach the mark. Toy Story 5, meanwhile, is coming up on the same figure, now sitting at $879 million after its fourth weekend in theaters.
The weekend also brought yet another not-so-thrilling update for Supergirl, which now has a total haul of $115.4 million. That puts it still well out of reach from the already disappointing $200 million finish some were hoping for, suggesting significant losses for Warner Bros. and its budding DCU.
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As the live-action Moana movie attempts to find its sea legs, it’s clear that the film’s 6/10 review from IGN doesn’t exactly fill fans with confidence. In it, we said, ‘Dwayne Johnson returns as Maui opposite newcomer Catherine Laga’aia in this frame-by-frame retelling of the Disney animated musical that doesn’t do enough to justify being made.’
