Moana capsizes with bumpy $43 million U.S. debut, ...

Moana capsizes with bumpy $43 million U.S. debut, while Michael breaks record with $1 billion at global box office

Disney’s live-action remake of the 2016 blockbuster failed to launch, marking a severe downturn after the success of “Toy Story 5.”

Sometimes there is telling how far you’ll go — and if you’re Disney’s live-action remake of Moana, it isn’t very far.

The reimagining of the 2016 blockbuster starring Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia seriously cratered in its domestic and global premiere at the weekend box office, earning just $43 million in the former market and $95 million in the latter, per Rentrak. That isn’t so so bad if you strip away all the context. Last week’s box office victor, Minions & Monsters, secured the gold with only $36.4 million. Though, that did represent the nadir of the Despicable Me franchise thus far, and more pertinently for Moana, the latest iteration was made for an estimated budget of $250 million.

Kicking off at less than one fifth of that sum, it will be virtually impossible for the film to recoup its budget, especially considering invisible marketing and promotional costs. The domestic premiere figures of the original, animated film and its 2024 sequel, Moana 2, utterly eclipse the new film: The first film raised $82 million in its five-day release, while Moana 2 scored a whopping $225.4 million.

It isn’t great news for Disney, which has otherwise had a largely successful run 2026 at the box office, save a few exceptions. The conglomerate’s last big release, Toy Story 5, smashed franchise records with staggering $160 million domestic and $312 million global showings. Hoppers and The Devil Wears Prada 2 also fared quite well.

But The Mandalorian and Grogu, the feature-length continuation of the acclaimed Disney+ series The Mandalorian, stumbled in its Memorial Day weekend premiere. The film picked up $81 million domestically and has gone on to earn $177.3 million in that market. It’s just enough to clear the film’s reported budget of $165 million, but that premiere figure represents the lowest opening for a live-action film in the entire Star Wars franchise.

What has found enormous success this year is Michael, the musical biopic of pop legend Michael Jackson, which crossed an important threshold this weekend. Starring the “Bad” singer’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, in the title role, the film is officially a billionaire, with its $5.5 million from theaters around the world pushing it to $1,001,691 in total earnings.

Still from ‘Minions and Monsters’.Illumination & Universal Pictures

Elsewhere on the domestic and global charts, Minions and Monsters secured the No. 2 spot in its second weekend in theaters, adding $20.5 million at home and $60 million around the world. That earned it the No. 4 spot on the global leaderboard, however, behind China and Hong Kong’s joint production of Kung Fu Soccer, which premiered to $68.4 million, and Toy Story 5, which earned $63.8 million in week 4.

That Disney/Pixar offering is well on its own way toward cutting the billion-dollar ribbon. It now boasts $879 million globally, with few signs of slowing down.

Evil Dead Burn, the sequel to 2023’s uber-gory Evil Dead Rise and the sixth film overall in the Evil Dead franchise launched by Sam Raimi in 1981, struggled to come back to life. The hallucinogenic horror movie grossed $13.7 million domestically and $27 million globally on an estimated budget of $20 million. It was tracking to debut between $25 million and $30 million, yet nearly halved Evil Dead Rise’s premiere figure of $24.5 million in 2023.

Next weekend, one of the oldest figures in the canon of Western literature will do battle with Disney for the crown.

Christopher Nolan returns after Oppenheimer’s 2023 box office bonanza with The Odyssey, a star-studded trip into the Greek epic by Homer that arrives on a sizable $250 million estimated budget. The combined powers of Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, and Tom Holland — and stellar word of mouth so far — are expected to vault the film to mythic heights.