Disney’s live-action “Moana” film pulled in $4.5 million in previews on Thursday, which is on the lower end of the scale for these kinds of films.
It’s better than the $3.5 million that “Snow White” did last year ahead of its $42.2 million opening, but less than half that of the live-action “The Little Mermaid” ($10.3 million) and several times less than “Moana 2” ($13.8 million).
Presales for the $250 million budget film headed into the weekend were just $4 million, and projections of a low $60 million opening weekend haul fell to somewhere in the high $40 million range the other day.
Combined with the bad reviews, there are questions now over how much walk-up business the film will do. If that business fails to materialise, those projections could slip lower.
There is also concern the family space is crowded with the success of “Toy Story 5” and last week’s softly debuting “Minions & Monsters”.
“Evil Dead Burn” also opened this weekend and did $2.3 million in previews, very close to the $2.5 million that “Evil Dead Rise” did ahead of its $23.5 million opening. Reviews have been mixed but almost all call it the darkest and goriest entry to date.
Source: Deadline
