‘Moana’ Sets Sail With $4.5M In Thursday Previews – Box Office

Disney’s live-action Moana made $4.5M in previews from Thursday showtimes that began 2PM.

No audience score yet, but critics have walloped this live action version directed by Thomas Kail with Maui’s hook at 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s lower than the live-action version of Snow White (39%) starring Rachel Zegler, Will Smith’s Aladdin (57%) and Dumbo (46%). Previews here for Moana are higher than Snow White ($3.5M, $42.2M opening) and Dumbo ($2.6M, $45.99M opening), but lower than Little Mermaid ($10.3M previews, $95.5M 3-day opening) and Aladdin ($7M previews, $91.5M 3-day opening). They’re also well below the Tuesday previews before Thanksgiving of Moana 2 ($13.8M, $139.7M 3-day).

Here’s the thing: Earlier this week we heard that Moana was hoping for a low $60M start, but exhibitors pushed that down to a high $40Ms projection. Presales heading into the weekend were at $4M. Yikes. Success with the latest Dwayne Johnson movie relies on walk-up business tomorrow, and the fear is that the family space is crowded with the mega success of Toy Story 5 and the recent lackluster release of Minions & Monsters, not to mention it’s too much Moana, too soon, this version arriving less than two years from the box office tsunami that was the animated Moana 2.

We have confirmed that Moana cost $250M before global P&A which is higher than the $200M pricetag of Dwayne Johnson/Seven Bucks’ Amazon MGM Studios’ production, Red Notice.

If Moana comes in well under its $60M+ domestic forecast, the hope is that midweek business makes up for any shortfall as the feature will remain the only fresh family title during the onslaught of Universal’s The Odyssey and Sony/Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day before Paramount lets Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie off its collar on Aug. 14.

Minions & Monsters counts a nine-day total of $87.7M after launching on Wednesday, July 1, that total running -47% behind Despicable Me 4 (another Wednesday opener) over the same period; that Illumination/Universal title ending its run at $361M stateside.

More..