Disney s live-action Moana, which stars Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga'aia, is getting off to a rocky start as the reimagining of the original 2016 animated feature opens at the box office.

Director Thomas Kail s new feature leads the weekend in scooping up roughly $18 million domestically Friday, including Thursday previews. Moana is eyeing an opening around $45 million from 3,900 North American screens, which would put it well short of its targeted $60 million-plus figure, after initial tracking suggested the film could even reach $75 million. Earning an A- CinemaScore from audiences, Moana carries a $250 million production budget and will need to draw family audiences in the coming summer stretch as Christopher Nolan's R-rated The Odyssey joins the fray next weekend from Universal.

This start is reminiscent of the $42 million opening in March 2025 for Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot's Snow White, a box office disappointment that earned a B+ CinemaScore and had a production budget of $270 million. Weeks after the subdued debut, Disney paused development on its planned live-action Tangled. The feature went back into development in the fall following the success of Lilo   Stitch, which opened in May 2025 to $146 million in North America, en route to hitting $1 billion globally. Tangled is currently in production in Spain, while a live-action sequel to Lilo   Stitch is on its way.

The original Moana becomes the most recent Disney animated property to be given the live-action treatment, with the first film having hit theaters less than a decade ago when it scored an $82 million five-day domestic opening over Thanksgiving in 2016, leading to a $643 million global cume. That 2016 film introduced Johnson as demigod Maui alongside Auli'i Cravalho as the titular girl with exceptional navigation skills, with the pair teaming up to stop a curse from targeting her island.

An even bigger hit when it debuted theatrically less than two years ago was Moana 2, the animated 2024 sequel that saw Johnson and Cravalho reprise their roles. Originally conceived as a Disney+ series, Moana 2 opened to $225 m

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