LOS ANGELES — In 2016, Walt Disney Co.'s "Moana" became a box office hit, captivating audiences with catchy earworms from Lin-Manuel Miranda and a spunky young heroine who rejected the label of princess.

Now, just 10 years later, it's the latest Disney animated film to be given the live-action treatment.

Burbank-based Disney has long reached into its vault in search of animated classics to redo in a live-action format. But a decade is the shortest time between one of the company's original animated movies and the reimagined film. (2025's "Lilo & Stitch," which originally debuted in 2002, is the next closest with a gap of 23 years.)

Why go back to "Moana" so soon? The Polynesian wayfarer is extremely popular.

The 2016 animated film grossed more than $643 million at the global box office, then spawned a 2024 sequel that made more than $1 billion worldwide. The original is the most-watched movie in Disney+ history with more than 1.5 billion hours of viewing.

"Every once in a while in Hollywood, we make a film that is more than a film," actor Dwayne Johnson, who reprises his role as the demigod Maui, said onstage during the movie's premiere Tuesday at the Hollywood Bowl after a Polynesian dance performance. "I think you could feel it already tonight, with our culture and with what we have represented. But also not only our Polynesian culture ... it's also a shared culture around the world."

The latest "Moana," out this weekend, will join a cadre of family films at the multiplex.

That includes Disney and Pixar's "Toy Story 5," which has now racked up more than $774 million worldwide, and Universal Pictures and Illumination's "Minions & Monsters," which debuted domestically last week to a softer-than-expected opening of $62 million for the five-day Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The weaker haul for "Minions & Monsters" has led to questions about whether there are too many family films in theaters, which could affect the reception for the latest iteration of "Moana." But as the last of this summer's trio of major animated films, the runway could be clear for the film to build steam.

"I don't think two movies make saturation," said Andrew Cripps, head of theatrical distribution for Walt Disney Studios. "There's a huge fanbase for the 'Moana' franchise."

But with two "Moana" movies in the last decade, will audiences flock to another film? Analysts are expecting an opening weekend haul of $75 million, though studio estimates are closer to $60 million to $65 million. The film's production budget is about $250 million.

"When you look at these massive movies that were just incredible — 'The Lion King,' 'Aladdin,' 'Beauty and the Beast' — they were brought back after years and years," said David A. Gross, who writes the industry newsletter FranchiseRe. "I think there's an argument that says absence makes the heart grow fonder with some of these. We'll see."

Early reviews of the film have been mixed, and "Moana" has so far notched a 37% rating on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is a nearly frame-by-frame recreation of the original.

Disney's live-action remakes have largely been box-office boons for the company, with a few exceptions.

In the last 16 years, five films have grossed more than $1 billion globally, including 2017's "Beauty and the Beast" and 2019's "The Lion King" and "Aladdin." (Other live-action spinoffs based on classic animated movies, such as 2024's "Mufasa: The Lion King" and 2014's "Maleficent," also had solid performances.)

"It goes back to the original [intellectual property] of these movies," Cripps said of the importance of live-action films for Disney's slate. "People grow up with it, they become fans of it, they live with it. When you've got IP that resonates so well literally around the world with fans, I just think it's a clever extension."

There have been some notable misfires, including last year's "Snow White," which cratered at the box office amid a myriad of controversies, including racist backlash to the casting of Rachel Zegler, who is of Colombian descent, as the titular princess, its depiction of little people and its lead actors' views on the Israel-Hamas war.

In general, live-action retellings have also typically performed well overseas — a marketplace that isn't always reliable these days.

Across 13 recent live-action films from Disney and other studios, all made more than 60% of their global box office revenue in international markets, Gross said.

By comparison, films across all genres typically bring in about half of their revenue overseas, he said.

"When these movies connect," Gross said, "they work everywhere."

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.