Disney President Names the Culprit Behind Live-Action 'Moana' Box Office Struggles

Disney’s live-action remakes have had a bumpy few years at the box office. 2025’s ‘Snow White’ collapsed with $205.7 million against a reported budget of more than $270 million, while ‘Lilo & Stitch’ that same year made $1 billion. That swing from flop to blockbuster has made every new remake feel like a high-stakes bet.

‘Moana‘ looked like a safe one. The 2016 animated original was a hit, and the sequel became a billion-dollar smash. Expectations for a live-action version starring Dwayne Johnson as Maui were high, with Deadline noting that the franchise has racked up 1.5 billion hours streamed on Disney+ and more than 22 million toys sold.

Now, one of Disney’s top executives is explaining what went wrong. In an interview with Variety, Disney president and chief creative officer Dana Walden addressed the poor box office performance of the live-action ‘Moana’, which hit theaters in July. She blamed the outcome on the film’s closeness to the animated ‘Moana 2’.

Walden called the live-action film excellent but said that it was hurt by the proximity to the second animated version, which premiered about 18 months earlier. In her view, there was not enough time to build “a lot of pent-up demand for another film.” She added that the market is so competitive right now that a film needs to be the right one at the right time, with audiences feeling a certain degree of demand.

The ‘Moana 2’ factor is a real one. That sequel was cobbled together from a scrapped ‘Moana’ TV show and blew expectations out of the water, opening to $225 million over the Thanksgiving holiday and reaching just over $1 billion by the end of its run. The original 2016 ‘Moana’ earned $643 million worldwide.

The live-action film did not continue that upward trajectory. Directed by Thomas Kail and starring Catherine Laga’aia as Moana, it opened to $43 million from 3,827 North American theaters, plus $52 million overseas for a global launch of $95 million. Disney had been projecting a $60 million to $65 million domestic debut and $140 million globally, and tracking had been even more bullish at one point.

That start was almost identical to the $42 million opening of ‘Snow White’, and it left the film among the weakest openings for a Disney live-action remake. With a production budget of $250 million before marketing, the pressure was immense. Variety projected at the time that the film could lose around $100 million for the studio in its theatrical run.

According to Box Office Mojo, the film has since reached $323.4 million worldwide, made up of $126.2 million domestically and $197.2 million internationally. That is well short of the sequel’s haul, and it falls under the roughly 2.5 times budget that a film typically needs to break even in theaters.

The ocean chose her for a reason 🌊

Experience @Disney’s MOANA only in theaters JULY 10.

~ 🪝 pic.twitter.com/Syz4bgkOBR
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) March 23, 2026

Walden’s explanation fits a broader point. The remake arrived a decade after the original and less than two years after the sequel, which underscores the trickiness of timing for Disney’s live-action projects. Even so, the film earned an A- CinemaScore, and 56 percent of its audience were parents with children, which is higher than for most Disney live-action remakes.

Disney also has other ways to profit from a franchise this big. A property like ‘Moana’ creates value through theme park attractions, consumer products, and streaming, not just ticket sales. That may be cold comfort for a film with a $250 million price tag, but it explains why the company is unlikely to retire the franchise.