Disney President Blames Live-Action MOANA Box Office Failure On Close Release of Animated MOANA 2

Disney’s history with live-action remakes of their animated classics has been riddled with high highs and low lows, with seemingly more lows in the recent years.

But one major remake the studio was banking on succeeding was the live-action remake of Moana, which they believed would be an easy success due to the immense fandom and popularity of the characters, but it fell flat at the box office.

Disney’s president and chief creative officer, Dana Walden, revealed her theory for the failure when she spoke at Bloomberg’s Screentime this week. During the discussion, she addressed the underwhelming box office performance of the studio’s live-action Moana. She said she believed the result was due to the film releasing very close to the animated sequel, Moana 2.

She explained, “It’s so competitive right now that you have to have … the right film at the right time, with audiences feeling a certain degree of demand.

I would say our live-action ‘Moana,’ which is excellent, I think it was hurt by the proximity to our second animated version of ‘Moana,’ which came together under unusual circumstances, but premiered about 18 months before this one. So perhaps there was not enough time to create a lot of pent-up demand for another film.”

I think this is an accurate evaluation. When you feel like you just took your kid to go see a Moana movie, you’re not exactly ready to run back out and see another one a year later. And I don’t think little kids, the main target audience of Moana, connect with live-action as much as animation.

Those live-action remakes are always a gamble, especially if their animated sequel counterparts are continuing to be released alongside them.