Moana 2 may not have wowed critics quite as much as the original film did, but it’s unlikely that Walt Disney Animation is that concerned with critical reception right now. At the end of the day, box office success trumps all other considerations, and the sequel to Moana has significantly outperformed the original film, becoming the 56th movie in cinema history to top the $1 billion mark. The film is now one of Dwayne Johnson's highest grossing movies ever and he's thanking the fans.
Box office estimates from this past weekend helped put Moana 2 over the top and Dwayne Johnson took to Instagram to thank fans of his film for making it such a big success. Johnson sees Moana 2’s box office as the embrace of Polynesian culture by a global audience. It’s hard to argue based on the numbers. Johnson wrote…
Moana 2 has reached an historic milestone. $1[Billion]+ at the global box office. Fa’afetai tele lava (thank you so much) for the global embrace of our Polynesian culture. Empowering ALL of our kids - and adults - from every culture and color to ALWAYS reach for more with your GRIT and your MANA. Love you guys and thank you. Incredible.
Considering fewer than 100 movies have achieved a $1 billion gross at the box office, it’s still a pretty elite club. But it's the third Disney movie in the last 12 months to achieve the feat following Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2. The first Moana movie was still a box office success, but it never came close to crossing that milestone, ending its box office run with a global take of less than $650 million.
If nothing else this is a vindication of those that made the decision to make a major change to the project that became Moana 2. Originally fans were going to get a Moana series on Disney+, but earlier this year Bob Iger announced that the planned series had been transformed into a feature film. While the economics of streaming are still something of a black box, it’s difficult to imagine Moana the series grossing $1 billion on Disney+.
This is likely good news for any fans who are hoping for more Moana going forward. Moana 2 had a post-credits scene that teased additional sequels, and it’s difficult to imagine Disney not taking a serious look at that following this sort of response. Moana 3 almost feels like a foregone conclusion.
The big question for Disney is if the success of Moana 2 will be reflected in the studio’s other upcoming sequels. This year Walt Disney Animation is releasing Zootopia 2, the sequel to a movie that made $1 billion at the box office the first time around. Down the road, we have not only the upcoming Frozen 3 but also Frozen 4, sequels to the movies that were, at their time the highest-grossing animated films ever made.
