Disney’s Dana Walden said the live-action Moana was hurt by coming out too soon after the animated Moana 2. The remake cost $250 million to make and grossed about $323 million worldwide, and analysts projected a loss of $100 million or more.
Disney finally said out loud why its live-action Moana didn’t work. According to the company’s top creative executive, the problem was another Moana.
“I think it was hurt by the proximity to our second animated version of ‘Moana,’” Dana Walden said Thursday, Oct. 1, at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference in Los Angeles, per WDW News Today and SuperHeroHype.
Walden, Disney’s president and chief creative officer, also called the remake “excellent.” Audiences didn’t show up the way Disney hoped, though, and the movie is widely projected to have lost more than $100 million.
How much money did live-action Moana lose?
Disney hasn’t said. But the estimates are big.
After the movie’s opening weekend in July, Deadline projected it could lose $100 million to $125 million, per WDW News Today and Chip and Co.
The math works like this. The movie’s production budget was $250 million, per The Numbers.
That doesn’t include marketing, which can add well over $100 million on a summer movie this size. Culture Crave, which flagged Walden’s comments on X, put marketing at around $120 million, though Disney hasn’t confirmed that.
Theaters also keep a big share of ticket sales, often around half. So a $250 million movie needs to earn far more than $250 million to break even. SlashFilm estimated the break-even point at about $625 million worldwide.
How much did live-action Moana make at the box office?
About $323.4 million worldwide, per The Numbers.
Domestic: about $126.2 million
International: about $197.2 million
Opening weekend: $43.1 million in the U.S. and Canada, and about $95 million worldwide
The movie did end up a bit better than the early forecasts, though. When Deadline made its loss projection in July, the film was tracking toward about $250 million worldwide.
It finished roughly $70 million above that. That likely trims the loss, but it’s still far short of break-even.
The movie arrived on home release in September, per The Numbers.
What did Dana Walden say about Moana?
She pointed to timing.
Walden said the market is so competitive that a studio needs “the right film at the right time,” with audiences actually wanting it, per WDW News Today.
The animated Moana 2 came out in November 2024 and earned more than $1 billion worldwide. The live-action Moana opened July 10, 2026, less than two years later. Walden said the sequel “came together under unusual circumstances.” Moana 2 started out as a Disney+ series before Disney turned it into a theatrical movie.
So, in her view, families had just gotten a new Moana movie. They weren’t hungry for another one yet.
Why else did live-action Moana flop?
Walden’s answer isn’t the only one going around.
Reviews were rough. The film has a 33% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, per SlashFilm, even though audiences gave it a 90% score and an A- CinemaScore.
The competition was brutal. Toy Story 5, also from Disney, had been in theaters since June and went on to pass $1 billion worldwide, per WDW News Today. Universal’s Minions & Monsters was chasing the same families.
It was a close copy. SlashFilm called the movie a mostly “piece-by-piece redo” of the 2016 original. That gave fans less reason to see it in theaters.
Fans on X weren’t buying the Moana 2 excuse either. Many replies to Culture Crave’s post said the remake simply wasn’t needed.
The trailer gives a sense of how closely it followed the original.
Who starred in the live-action Moana?
Catherine Laga’aia played Moana in her film debut, and Dwayne Johnson returned as Maui, the role he voiced in the animated movies, per Wikipedia. Thomas Kail, who directed the filmed version of Hamilton, directed.
What does this mean for Disney’s live-action remakes?
It’s a tough stretch. The live-action Snow White opened to a similar $42.2 million in 2025, and it was estimated to have lost Disney about $170 million, per WDW News Today.
Walden’s comments came at the same Screentime event where she talked about Disney’s latest layoffs. Disney hasn’t announced any changes to its remake plans. For now, the official answer is that Moana came back too fast, not that people didn’t want it.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
Culture Crave on X (Oct. 1, 2026), first flagged Walden’s Moana comments and the loss estimate
WDW News Today (Oct. 1, 2026), Walden’s Screentime quotes and Toy Story 5’s $1 billion run
SuperHeroHype (Oct. 1, 2026), Walden quote and budget
WDW News Today and Chip and Co (July 13-14, 2026), Deadline’s $100 million to $125 million loss projection and opening weekend
The Numbers, production budget, box office totals and home release
SlashFilm (2026), reviews, CinemaScore, break-even estimate and competition
IGN on YouTube, the Moana trailer
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