The live-action Moana will begin streaming on Disney+ on October 21. It opened in theaters on July 10 and became available digitally in September, putting its streaming debut a little more than three months after its theatrical release.
The film struggled in theaters. It brought in $43 million domestically during its opening weekend, a disappointing result for a production with a reported $250 million budget. Its worldwide total eventually reached about $323.6 million. Films generally need to earn two to 2.5 times their budgets to break even, making this almost certainly a major underperformance for Disney.
Reviewers criticized the remake for not developing an identity separate from the 2016 animated film. Audiences, too, seemed unenthusiastic about a live-action version arriving only a decade after the original. Many of Disney’s other live-action remakes, by comparison, have drawn on animated films released decades earlier.
The animated Moana and its 2024 sequel both attracted large audiences with their stories and music rooted in Polynesian culture. The original has a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes and earned $687.2 million on a budget of $150 million to $175 million. Critics were more divided over Moana 2, but it performed even better commercially, grossing more than $1 billion worldwide on a $150 million budget. Their results show that audiences are eager for successful films focused on diverse cultures.
Moana’s Disney+ arrival comes in a mixed year for the studio. Although Disney has had box-office disappointments such as The Mandalorian and Grogu and Moana, it is one of two studios to surpass $4 billion in worldwide box-office revenue in 2026. Toy Story 5 leads Disney’s releases with more than $1 billion globally, and The Devil Wears Prada 2 has earned $692 million.
Toy Story 5’s strong box-office performance did not keep Disney from laying off Pixar employees earlier this year. More films are coming, including Avengers: Doomsday, which could be Disney’s biggest hit of 2026.
