The live-action remake posted a 31% Rotten Tomatoes score and is projected to lose at least $100 million theatrically, but Johnson says what mattered most was Polynesian representation on screen.
Dwayne Johnson is taking the live-action Moana remake’s critical drubbing in stride, telling People magazine that the blowback simply comes with the territory.
“That’s just the way it goes because we’re in this business,” Johnson said of the film’s 31% Rotten Tomatoes score, which puts it among the worst-reviewed Disney remakes in recent memory.
The actor recalled how quickly the tide turned after the film’s first notices arrived. “Our first two reviews came out. I’ll never forget it … They were amazing. I was like, ‘Wow,'” he said, before noting that reviews went “another way,” adding with a laugh, “as sometimes happens.”
Johnson and his wife, Lauren Hashian, processed the reception privately. “We had a lot of these conversations at home, at the kitchen island late at night when the babies are asleep,” he said. “The challenge was, ‘Okay, let’s remember, though. What’s going to be beyond this opening weekend? Let’s remember what’s happening right now and the noise that’s happening.'”
But as with art, taste is subjective. “If you love it, great. If you don’t, no problem,” the actor said.
What Johnson said “really mattered” to him was the film’s Polynesian representation. “Because of me and our kids who can now look at the big screen and go, ‘That’s us for the first time on a big screen. That’s us up there. How cool is that?'” said Johnson, whose mother is Samoan. He described authentic Polynesian representation as “always the heart of the project.”
The live-action Moanastruggled from the start commercially. The film opened to $43 million domestically, well short of Disney’s internal target above $60 million and early third-party projections of $75 million. Against a reported $250 million production budget and an additional $120 million in marketing, the film’s roughly $264 million worldwide gross left it deep in the red. According to Variety, the theatrical run is projected to produce a loss of at least $100 million.
At Disney’s August 5 earnings call, new CEO Josh D’Amaro addressed the shortfall directly. “Even when our franchise films don’t meet our box office expectations, as with the ‘Mandalorian and Grogu’ and the live-action ‘Moana,’ our investments in these core properties fuel other parts of our company,” he said. D’Amaro added that the film is expected to perform strongly on Disney+, calling the original Moana “one of the most-streamed movies of all time.”
