Why Live-Action Moana Split Critics and Audiences Now

Crowds cheered while reviewers frowned. That's the short, odd story of Disney's live-action Moana.

The remake stars Katherine Langford as Moana, with Dwayne Johnson returning to play Maui. On Rotten Tomatoes the critics were unforgiving — a 34% score, the lowest in the franchise so far. Audiences, however, told a different tale: with more than 500 verified ratings the film sits at an impressive 91% audience score.

How do you reconcile those numbers? Part of it is familiarity. Viewers praised the remake for staying faithful to the 2016 original, and many singled out Langford’s turn as a brighter spot amid the controversy. Critics, by contrast, flagged problems they found harder to forgive: a perceived loss of the original’s charm, an over-reliance on CGI, and what some called a flatter take on Maui than fans expected.

Put the three franchise entries side by side and the split becomes obvious. The 2016 animated Moana earned stellar critical acclaim (96%) and an 89% audience rating. The 2024 sequel softened those numbers — critics at 61% and audiences at 85%. Now the 2026 live-action sits at 34% critic and 91% audience. Odd, right? Critics cooled; audiences warmed up.

The gulf between word-of-mouth and box office is even more striking. Disney had hoped the remake would anchor the summer. Instead, opening weekend domestic receipts landed at $43 million and global ticket sales reached about $95 million — well short of the $60–65 million domestic and $130 million worldwide forecasts. With a reported production budget near $250 million, Deadline estimates Disney could face losses in the $100–125 million range.

So what’s the takeaway? For some viewers, this Moana is a comforting, nostalgic retelling—close enough to the 2016 original to satisfy sentimental fans. For many critics, it’s an unnecessary rehash that loses what made the animated film sing. Either way, the remake has become a rare modern example of how review aggregators and audience reactions can move in completely different directions.

At the end of the day, the film’s fate may hinge less on critics’ charts and more on whether audiences keep coming back to the theater — or to their streaming lists — to rediscover the story for themselves.