---
title: "Disney's live-action 'Moana' opens to a box-office test and mixed reviews"
description: "Disney's live-action remake of 'Moana' arrives in theaters facing a pointed question: will audiences turn out for the story again, barely a year and a half after the animated 'Moana 2' was a billion-dollar hit? Early tracking suggests a solid but unspectacular opening, and reviews have been rough."
category: "Entertainment"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/entertainment
author: "Simone Bishop"
published: 2026-07-10T01:56:00.000Z
updated: 2026-07-10T01:56:00.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/disneys-live-action-moana-opens-to-a-box-office-test-and-mixed-reviews
tags: ["disney", "moana", "box-office", "movies", "hollywood"]
---
# Disney's live-action 'Moana' opens to a box-office test and mixed reviews

Disney's live-action remake of 'Moana' arrives in theaters facing a pointed question: will audiences turn out for the story again, barely a year and a half after the animated 'Moana 2' was a billion-dollar hit? Early tracking suggests a solid but unspectacular opening, and reviews have been rough.

Disney is betting again on one of its most successful recent characters, and this time in the flesh. Its live-action "Moana" opens this weekend, a big, expensive test of how much appetite remains for the story.

## The tracking

The film is expected to open in the neighborhood of $60 million to $65 million domestically, a figure that has come down from earlier, loftier projections, [The Hollywood Reporter reported](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/moana-box-office-test-disney-live-action-dwayne-johnson-1236643385/). That would be a respectable start for most movies, but "Moana" is not most movies: it carries a reported budget around $250 million, the kind of number that raises the bar for what counts as a success. As always with pre-opening tracking, the estimates are just that, and the real answer comes at the weekend box office.

## The timing problem

Part of the challenge is how recently audiences last saw Moana. The animated "Moana 2" arrived in late 2024 and became a blockbuster, crossing $1 billion worldwide, [The Hollywood Reporter reported](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/moana-box-office-test-disney-live-action-dwayne-johnson-1236643385/). Turning around a live-action version this quickly risks fatigue: the songs, the characters and the story are all still fresh, which can cut against the sense of event that drives people to theaters.

## The cast, and the reviews

Dwayne Johnson returns as the demigod Maui, the role he voiced in the 2016 original, with Catherine Laga'aia taking on the title role and Thomas Kail directing. The critical reception, however, has been unkind: the film has drawn poor reviews, with critics arguing the remake struggles to recapture what made the animated version special, [The Hollywood Reporter reported](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/moana-box-office-test-disney-live-action-dwayne-johnson-1236643385/). Reviews do not always determine box office, especially for a family title, but they set an unhelpful tone.

## The bigger question for Disney

The opening matters beyond one film. Disney's run of live-action remakes has been uneven, with some, like "The Lion King" and "Lilo & Stitch," opening huge, and others, like "Snow White," falling flat, [The Hollywood Reporter reported](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/moana-box-office-test-disney-live-action-dwayne-johnson-1236643385/). A strong "Moana" would suggest the strategy still has life; a soft one would sharpen the questions about how often, and how fast, the studio can go back to the same well. For a company, and an industry, that leans on these tentpoles, the answer arrives in a single weekend.