<\/p>\n
The Walt Disney Company\u2019s live action \u201cMoana\u201d may be the No. 1 movie at the domestic box office, but it did not make a big splash in its first weekend in theaters.<\/p>\n
The movie, which cost a reported $250 million to produce, earned just $43 million from ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday.<\/p>\n
Internationally, it earned $52 million from 50 markets, adding up to a $95 million global debut.<\/p>\n
The studio bet big on \u201cMoana,\u201d one of its most popular franchises. The 2016 animated film is the most watched movie on Disney+. Its sequel, which was stitched together from a planned streaming series, made over $1 billion and scored a Thanksgiving record when it opened with $225 million in 2024. \u201cMoana 2\u201d was also released just 19 months ago.<\/p>\n
This latest \u201cMoana,\u201d directed by Thomas Kail, brings Dwayne Johnson back as the demigod Maui and introduces Catherine Laga\u02bbaia as the adventuring Polynesian princess. Despite praise for Laga\u02bbaia, the film set sail on a wave of dismal reviews from critics for being essentially a shot-for-shot remake of the original.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s currently sitting at a 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, the majority of whom were women (66%), were less negative: According to PostTrak, 63% said they would \u201cdefinitely\u201d recommend the film to their friends. Parent reactions were even stronger, with 78% saying they would recommend it to other parents. It also got a promising A- CinemaScore.<\/p>\n
Disney\u2019s live action remakes of beloved animated films, new and old, have had their share of successes and disappointments. Some have made over $1 billion, including \u201cLilo & Stitch,\u201d \u201cThe Lion King\u201d and \u201cBeauty and the Beast.\u201d Others have floundered, most notably last year\u2019s \u201cSnow White,\u201d which made only $205 million worldwide.<\/p>\n
Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, said \u201cMoana’s\u201d debut could also be a product of PG-rated oversaturation in the marketplace: Universal\u2019s \u201cMinions & Monsters\u201d was in second place with $20.5 million and \u201cToy Story 5\u201d was close behind in third place with $18.5 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamilies love going to the movies, but right now there are three of them,\u201d Dergarabedian said. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
PG-rated films outgrossed others in 2024 and 2025, so \u201cMoana’s\u201d performance may not be a case of \u201cfamily movie fatigue,\u201d he said, but simply shows there can be a ceiling. Families have to make a choice, and after four weekends, \u201cToy Story 5\u201d is still going strong with a running global total of $879.1 million.<\/p>\n
There also are signs that these movies might not sink or swim based on the opening weekend alone. Although \u201cMinions & Monsters\u201d opened below expectations over the Fourth of July holiday, it also had a modest 45% drop this weekend. Its running domestic total is currently sitting at $108.3 million <\/p>\n
The weekend\u2019s other big new opener was definitely not PG: The R-rated horror \u201cEvil Dead Burn,\u201d a Warner Bros. release, opened to $13.7 million and landed in fourth place.<\/p>\n
Angel Studios\u2019 George Washington movie \u201cYoung Washington\u201d rounded out the top five in its second weekend in theaters, with $6.4 million.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nbcsandiego.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Walt Disney Company\u2019s live action \u201cMoana\u201d may be the No. 1 movie at the domestic box office, but it did not make a big splash in its first weekend in theaters. The movie, which cost a reported $250 million to produce, earned just $43 million from ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2499068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21912],"class_list":["post-2499067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783877454_Disneys-live-action-\u2018Moana-makes-underwhelming-box-office-debut-\u2013-NBC.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2499067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2499069,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499067\/revisions\/2499069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2499068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2499067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2499067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2499067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}