Disney opens its live-action remake of Moana on July 10, 2026, with a reported $200 million production budget and a 36% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 81 reviews.
Catherine Laga'aia stars as Moana in her film debut. Dwayne Johnson returns as the demigod Maui, reprising his role from the 2016 animated original. Thomas Kail directs in his narrative feature debut. Kail is best known for staging Broadway's Hamilton and the Showtime series Fosse/Verdon. The screenplay is by Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller.
Critics have been cold. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus describes the film as "unnecessary and faithful to a fault." Robbie Collin of the Daily Telegraph wrote: "There is barely a moment in it which feels as if it couldn't have been achieved by typing: 'What if this scene from Moana was remade in live action?' into a video generator's prompt box." Alonso Duralde of The Film Verdict was more measured: "The best that can be said for Moana 2026 is that, for a movie that doesn't particularly need to exist in the first place, it at least succeeds as entertainment."
Box office tracking has softened. Early projections placed the domestic opening near $85 million. According to The Wrap, more recent tracking puts the range at $45 to $75 million. The original animated Moana grossed nearly $700 million worldwide in 2016. Moana 2 cleared $1.05 billion in 2024, making this the third major theatrical event in the franchise in a decade.
The film opens one week ahead of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Whether franchise loyalty survives the critical consensus is the first open question of the summer's back half.
