Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia lead Disney‘s live-action Moana, which aims to make waves in its box office debut this weekend but could face a challenge, coming less than two years after the latest entry in the island-centric film franchise.
Director Thomas Kail‘s movie is eyeing a domestic weekend start between $60 million and $65 million with a launch spanning 3,900 theaters in North America. This is dialed back from last month, when tracking for the film — which marks the studio’s latest live-action reimagining after striking it big with 2025’s Lilo & Stitch — suggested Moana’s domestic weekend debut could reach as high as $75 million or above.
With a hefty production budget of $250 million, Disney will need Moana to serve as a family-friendly summer option for weeks to come. The film remakes directors John Musker and Ron Clements’ 2016 animated musical of the same name that introduced Johnson as the voice of demigod Maui alongside Auli’i Cravalho as Moana. The movie centers on Moana teaming up with Maui to stop a curse from impacting her family’s island.
The new Moana hasn’t quite gone over swimmingly with the majority of critics. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, chief film critic David Rooney wrote that “this charming new iteration stands confidently on its own,” but the latest Moana holds just a 37 percent Rotten Tomatoes approval rating from reviewers.
