Disney‘s live-action Moana aims to make a splash as it begins its box office run, with the movie that stars Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia bringing back the franchise to theaters after its major success with Moana 2, the animated sequel to the studio’s original 2016 film.
Director Thomas Kail‘s new feature collected $4.5 million from Thursday previews on 3,900 North American screens as it eyes a start in the $60 million to $65 million range. Moana focuses on the titular girl (Laga’aia) with exceptional navigation skills as she and demigod Maui (Johnson) attempt to stop a curse from targeting her island.
Moana will need to draw family audiences in the coming summer weeks, given that it carries a substantial $250 million production budget. 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. Moana 2, the animated 2024 sequel that saw Johnson and Cravalho reprise their roles, was an even bigger sensation, nabbing a whopping $225 million domestically over the five-day Thanksgiving frame en route to surpassing $1 billion globally.
When asked at the Moana premiere this week in Los Angeles about hitting theaters a short time after Moana 2, Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter, “To be honest with you, I never bought into this idea [of], ‘You have to wait 20 years. You have you wait 30 years. It’s too soon.’” The star added that “there’s themes and values in this, in animated Moana, that could translate really well if you saw a real young girl going through it.”
In his review of the live-action Moana, THR chief film critic David Rooney noted that “this charming new iteration stands confidently on its own.” Not all reviewers were as magically transported by the reimagining, as the new movie holds just a 36 percent Rotten Tomatoes approval rating from critics.
Disney’s live-action remakes of its popular animated properties have included such photorealistic versions as Alice in Wonderland (2010), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and The Lion King (2019), all of which opened to more than $100 million domestically in their opening weekends. The most recent live-action update came with last year’s Lilo & Stitch, with the new version of the 2002 animated feature opening to $146 million in North America, en route to hitting $1 billion globally. This one arrived just two months after Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot’s Snow White was a box office disappointment, opening to $42 million in North America that March.
On the horizon is a live-action sequel to Lilo & Stitch, while Tangled, starring Teagan Croft and Milo Manheim, has begun production in Spain with a live-action spin on the 2010 animated original about Rapunzel.
Also opening in wide release is Evil Dead Burn, with Warner Bros. releasing director Sébastien Vaniček’s movie that marks the sixth title in the Evil Dead horror franchise after it kicked off with Sam Raimi’s 1981 original. It notched $2.3 million in Thursday previews.
Evil Dead Burn stars Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright Hunter Doohan, with Rooney’s review for THR noted the new movie’s “orgiastic slaughter.” It follows Evil Dead Rise, which opened to $24.5 million domestically in April 2023.
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