Moana Opens Less Than $1 Million Above the Box Office Live-Action Bomb "Snow White"
“Moana” beat the live-action “Snow White” at the box office by $800k. The new film came in at $43 million for its domestic opening. In comparison, “Snow White” made $42.2 million for its opening weekend.
Globally, “Moana” brought in $95 million, with $52 million from international theaters. “Snow White” came in significantly lower at $87.2 million globally.
When you consider all the information, “Moana” did beat “Snow White”. Not that it matters because the opening was still low for a big-budget Disney film.
How big of a budget?
Estimates put it at $250 million before marketing, theatrical cuts, etc. Meaning it would need to bring in about $500 million to break even.
This is not good.
But hey, it beat “Supergirl,” which came in at $37.1 million domestically.
Deadline estimates that “Moana” will cost Disney $100-$125 million in losses.
Disney has a live-action film problem that they keep ignoring in order to chase losses
“Moana” isn’t a bad movie. Audiences gave it over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. The issue is that it is a remake of a better version.
Fans of the original will go and love it, but the general audience will save their money and wait for streaming.
Everyone except Disney can see that these movies are not working.
When the Walt Disney Company gets one hit, they pivot to chase money, but not every film works as a live-action remake.
“Tangled” might work better, but after that, Disney might need to stop. Just because “Lilo & Stitch” did well does not mean that every live-action remake will do well.
Disney needs new animated projects with mass appeal. Instead of chasing specific audiences, they need to go back to telling good stories that appeal to a broad audience.
Meaning more “Encanto” and less “Elio”.
Once the leader in animation and storytelling, Disney has somehow lost its touch, and they are feeling the pinch.
Or maybe audiences have moved on since there is so much to watch on streaming that doesn’t require a costly trip to the theater?
Either way, Disney needs to figure out what the issues are and start making an effort to craft stories audiences want to see if they want to survive the modern box office.
Maybe stop the live-action remakes.
You’re welcome.