Disney’s $250M Moana remake flopped in cinemas — now it’s a streaming smash
One film’s staging a streaming comeback, even edging out several Halloween favourites.
Not content with milking the vaults of the 1990s, Disney has been churning out live-action remakes of just about everything it owns — but the decision to give Moana this treatment raised a few eyebrows. The original Moana hit screens in 2016, which frankly isn’t long ago at all. Then, before the paint even dried on the new live-action version, Moana 2 turned up in cinemas in 2024. So if you feel like you haven’t had much time to get nostalgic about Moana, you’re not alone.
Moana hit cinemas less than a decade after the original, then got a sequel before the remake could even leave cinemas.
Did Moana's Remake Sink or Swim?
If Disney was relying on box office gold, things didn’t exactly go to plan with the remake. It managed to pull in around $324 million worldwide. Not a flop by ordinary standards — unless, of course, you had the misfortune to shell out what Disney reportedly did, which is a staggering $250 million budget on the thing. Put like that, what looks like a decent haul suddenly starts to go a bit sideways, and sure enough, the industry press wasted no time labelling it an underperformer.
Critics weren’t shy about putting the boot in. The Rotten Tomatoes critics score is a positively grim 33 percent, which is basically an open invitation for everyone to watch the animated version instead. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described the whole exercise as a 'competent but pointless and unexciting back-to-basics live-action remake', while over at CBC they called it an 'uncannily ugly visual experience, birthed out of an outright disrespect of the medium it’s adapting.' Not pulling punches, then.
Audience Reactions: Critics vs the Rest of Us
Despite critics having a field day, there are positives to be found. Catherine Laga'aia, the Australian newcomer tapped for the lead in her big-screen debut, got a decent bit of praise, especially for belting out classics like 'How Far I’ll Go' and 'Along The Way.' And if you actually care what real people are thinking, the Rotten Tomatoes audience 'Popcornmeter' sits up at a healthy 87 percent. So, a fair chunk of viewers seem to be sticking up for the film in spite of the reviews.
Streaming: The Big Second Wind
Here’s the odd twist: just as box office headlines were winding down, Disney’s Moana remake found a whole new audience online. Nielsen’s streaming chart for the 18th to the 25th of October has the film in the top spot, clocking a total of 579 million minutes watched in that week alone. It managed to see off the usual Halloween crowd-pleasers like Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas — not something you’d expect for a tropical musical aimed at kids.
During its best streaming week, Moana was watched for over half a billion minutes, topping the charts above holiday favourites.
No one’s got a bulletproof answer for why the film did so much better at home than in cinemas. There’s an argument (cheers, New York Times) that going to theatres first gives a boost since theatrical releases get tons of marketing, some actual buzz, and the crucial word-of-mouth effect which carries over once a film lands on streaming platforms. More proof, if you needed it, that a box office wobble doesn’t mean disaster if you can find your people on the sofa. At the moment, Moana’s live-action version is available on Disney Plus for anyone curious—or masochistic—enough to give it a look.