Moana 2 was one of the biggest movies of last year, coming in just under ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2 to become one of the highest-grossing movies of 2024. Moana 2 was the sequel to Disney’s 2016 animated feature Moana. Although Moana 2‘s reviews were mixed compared to its predecessor’s, the sequel nearly doubled the earnings of the original, ensuring that the Moana franchise will continue for many years to come.

While Moana 3 is likely years away, the upcoming live-action remake of the original Moana is set to release in 2026, 10 years after the first film won over audiences. The live-action Moana already announced its cast and release date, and Disney is clearly hoping to ride the wave of success that Moana 2 found. Moana 2 could very well bring Disney’s live-action remakes the most success they’ve seen in years.

Moana 2’s $1 Billion Box Office Shows The Franchise’s Increasing Fandom

Moana 2 Proved The Huge Strength Of The Franchise

The biggest point in the live-action Moana‘s favor is just how much better the sequel did compared to the original movie. Moana was released in 2016, during a time when Disney could reliably count on the majority of their movies to be big successes, simply based on the name alone. Nowadays, the company is on much shakier ground, with Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, and even the once unstoppable Marvel Cinematic Universe putting out movies that could only be described as huge flops.

However, Moana 2 suffered no such fate, earning over a billion dollars for the company, despite the fact that Moana 2 was originally meant to be a Disney+ show that was cut up and retooled into a feature-length film. Compared to Moana‘s $643 million, Moana 2′s $1.059-billion gross blew expectations out of the water, showing that, despite Disney’s recent missteps, the Moana franchise has and will likely continue to grow as more projects get added to the series.

Moana’s Live-Action Remake Is Well Positioned To Dominate The Box Office Next Year

The Movie Will Likely Do Extremely Well When It Releases

With the growing popularity of the Moana franchise, the 2026 live-action remake is beginning to look like another slam dunk for Disney, and could very well climb even higher than Moana 2. Although Disney’s live-action Snow White remake is looking to be a significant miss despite a great central performance by Rachel Zegler, Lilo & Sтιтch has been getting a lot of attention with its recent trailer. Meanwhile, Moana is even fresher in people’s minds because of Moana 2‘s success next year.

Disney’s live-action remakes are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the box office, even if some of them don’t do as well as others. Now that Moana has proven its strength as a franchise as opposed to a single movie, it seems almost guaranteed to make a ton of money. While Dwayne Johnson isn’t a guaranteed box office hit anymore, his name still carries a lot of weight, and the fact that he is so heavily connected to this project is an even better sign for the remake’s box office.

I Think Moana Will Become Disney’s Highest Grossing Live-Action Remake

The Upcoming Remake Has The Chance To Become The Biggest

Moana is well-positioned to become Disney’s highest-grossing live-action remake, a тιтle currently held by 2019’s The Lion King, one of their first forays into remake territory, which remains their most successful attempt. That film’s success was based on a number of factors, including that The Lion King is perhaps Disney’s most iconic original property of all time, as well as the fact that it came out before the market had become inundated with live-action remakes of animated classics.

While The Lion King‘s $1.6 billion haul is a very steep ask, Moana 2 quickly earned $400 million more than its predecessor, a huge jump for a franchise that was already a big success. While Disney’s live-action remakes can be a gamble, more often than not, they pay off, generally scaling with the popularity of the franchise they are based on. Now that Moana‘s franchise has proven just how enormous it is, the live-action film could easily overtake Moana 2 by a wide margin and take over The Lion King‘s crown.