After live-action Moana’s box office bomb, Dwayne Johnson points to a silver lining

Let Dwayne Johnson have this: he knows how to take a flop with some grace. You might've noticed the live-action Moana wasn’t exactly a roaring success in cinemas, which for Disney meant a fair bit of collective sighing into spreadsheets. But Johnson—still ever the optimist—reckons something big came out of it anyway, and he's got the family history to make the point count.

Speaking to People, Dwayne Johnson said the real achievement was that 'the culture really stood up,' and that was 'the main reason why the movie was made.'

Now, the studio had high hopes with Thomas Kail at the helm and newcomer Catherine Laga’aia as Moana, while Johnson himself reprised his role as Maui—except this time, in the flesh rather than behind a microphone. The adaptation leaned extra hard on the Polynesian roots that defined the original, which definitely meant something to Johnson, whose mum’s Samoan.

He went on to describe how meaningful it was for kids to see themselves up on screen, saying they can finally point and say, 'That's us up there. How cool is that?'

Critical Reception: Brutal

Here's where things go downhill. If you're glancing over at Rotten Tomatoes for reassurance—don't. The live-action Moana is sitting at a rather humiliating 31% Tomatometer, which polite people call 'not brilliant' and the rest of us call 'a bit of a disaster'. The critic pile-on wasn’t exactly subtle either.

• Jorge Rivera Rubio (El Barrio de la Nueva 94FM) dubbed it 'a soulless cash grab' and advised sticking to the original animation.
• Michael Medved (The Michael Medved Show) labelled it 'stale and dull' even if the cast had some moments.
• Alan Sculley (Metro Times) blasted the film for being 'so beholden to the 2016 animated musical that its creative bankruptcy is shocking.'

In stark contrast to the critics, the film racked up a surprisingly healthy 88% Popcornmeter audience score. But if you think that means happy crowds flocked to the cinema, think again.

The film cost a whopping $250 million to make and has barely scraped in $262 million at the box office so far.

It doesn’t get more underwhelming than that for what Disney hoped would be a new live-action tentpole.