Disney President and Chief Creative Officer Dana Walden believes she knows what went wrong with Disney’s enormously expensive live-action Moana remake: audiences simply weren’t ready for another Moana movie.
We could’ve told her that…
Walden recently addressed the disappointing theatrical performance of Disney’s live-action remake, which arrived in theaters less than two years after Moana 2 became a billion-dollar blockbuster.
“It’s so competitive right now that you have to have … the right film at the right time, with audiences feeling a certain degree of demand,” Walden explained.
She then pointed directly toward the proximity of Moana 2.
“I would say our live-action Moana, which is excellent, I think it was hurt by the proximity to our second animated version of Moana, which came together under unusual circumstances, but premiered about 18 months before this one,” Walden said. “So perhaps there was not enough time to create a lot of pent-up demand for another film.”
That’s a rather remarkable admission from one of Disney’s most powerful executives because it effectively acknowledges that Disney may have cannibalized one of its own biggest franchises.
Disney Flooded the Market With ‘Moana’
The original Moana was released in 2016 and grossed approximately $643 million worldwide. Its popularity subsequently exploded on streaming, helping transform Moana into one of Disney’s most valuable modern characters.
Disney eventually attempted to turn that popularity into a streaming series before transforming the project into Moana 2. Despite its unconventional development, the animated sequel became an enormous theatrical success.
Moana 2 surpassed $1 billion worldwide.
Moana in the live action movie – YouTube, Disney
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That should have seemingly created the perfect environment for Disney’s already-planned live-action remake starring Dwayne Johnson.
Instead, audiences apparently had their fill.
The live-action Moana grossed just $323 million worldwide despite carrying a staggering reported production budget of approximately $250 million. Once marketing expenses and theaters’ share of ticket sales are considered, that worldwide gross isn’t remotely enough to make a movie of that size theatrically profitable.
The contrast is particularly brutal.
Disney took a franchise that had just produced a billion-dollar animated movie and followed it with a $250 million live-action remake that couldn’t even reach one-third of its predecessor’s worldwide gross.
Walden Says Disney Didn’t Give Audiences Enough Time
Walden’s explanation raises an obvious question: If Disney knew Moana 2 was arriving in November 2024, why did it keep the live-action remake positioned so close behind it?
The answer may lie in just how unexpectedly successful Moana 2 became.
The sequel wasn’t originally conceived as Disney’s next massive theatrical animated release. It grew out of a planned Disney+ television series before being reworked into a feature film. Once the movie exploded at the box office, Disney suddenly had two major Moana projects arriving within a relatively short window.
Moana in Moana (2016), Walt Disney Studios
Rather than increasing demand for the franchise, Walden now acknowledges that the animated sequel may have done precisely the opposite.
Disney had effectively asked audiences who had just paid to see a new Moana adventure to return to theaters and pay again for a live-action recreation of a movie they had already seen.
And unlike Moana 2, the remake wasn’t offering audiences the next chapter in the story.
It was taking them back to the beginning.
Disney Defends the Value of Its Biggest Franchises
Disney nevertheless continues to emphasize that the value of its franchises extends well beyond theatrical ticket sales.
“Our job is to deliver the highest quality,” Walden said. “Try to create content which endures and is going to be of value years and years and years from now. That is what has built this unmatched canon of IP. So there will be an event. There will be something.”
Dana Walden via Variety YouTube
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Disney can certainly generate revenue from Moana outside the movie theater through Disney+, merchandise, licensing, theme parks, and the rest of the company’s enormous entertainment ecosystem.
But none of those ancillary benefits change what happened at the box office.
Disney spent roughly $250 million producing another Moana movie only months after audiences had already turned out in enormous numbers for Moana 2. The result was a theatrical gross of just $323 million worldwide.
Disney May Have Cannibalized Its Own Billion-Dollar Franchise
The most significant part of Walden’s comments isn’t simply that Moana underperformed.
It’s her explanation for why.
Disney didn’t discover that audiences had stopped caring about Moana. The extraordinary performance of Moana 2 makes that argument difficult to sustain.
Hei Hei in the live action Moana – YouTube, Disney
Instead, according to Walden, Disney failed to give those audiences enough time to actually want another one. That means the problem wasn’t necessarily the strength of the Moana franchise. It was Disney’s handling of it.
The company took one of its most successful modern animated properties, released a billion-dollar sequel, and then rushed another enormously expensive movie carrying the same characters and story into theaters roughly 18 months later.
If Walden’s assessment is correct, Disney didn’t run out of demand for Moana. It burned through that demand itself.
How do you feel about the live action Moana? Sound off and let us know!
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