Moana, Disney’s live-action remake of the 2016 film of the same name, is holding strong at the box office. In its second week in theaters, the film is set to drop only 56%, with a projected domestic total of $5.6 million. This drop is significant, as it is the lowest second-week decline for a Disney live-action remake since 2019’s Aladdin (excluding films like Mufasa: The Lion King or Cruella, which are technically prequels and whose box office was affected by seasonal or pandemic-related factors).
This is good news for the Live-action Moana, given its disappointing box-office debut. At its debut, the film made only $43 million domestically, a total that was quite close to the debut of the box-office flop Disney’s Live-Action Snow White, and is estimated to have already put the film at an estimated $100 million loss for Disney.
On top of disappointing financially, the live-action Moana has also disappointed critically, ranking among the lowest-rated Disney live-action remakes by critics, with a rotten critics’score of 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences seem to be favoring the film, as it currently has a 89% “Verified Hot” audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- CinemaScore.
With such audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes and CinemaScore, it’s clear that the historically low drop for Disney’s live-action Moana can be blamed on decent word of mouth. But considering the film’s incredibly low debut, it is unlikely to break even. The film’s budget is estimated to be $250 million, with an additional $100 million spent on marketing. With such a high budget and marketing costs, and considering factors like the theater’s cut of each box office sale, the film is estimated to need to make $700 million worldwide to break even. Historically, Disney’s live-action remake, which has debuted at less than $90 million worldwide, has never broken that threshold.
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