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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson shared his thoughts about the negative reviews for Disney’s live-action Moana remake after it floundered in theaters.
The Black Adam actor, who reprised his role as Maui in last month’s reimagining of the animated Disney flick, touched on some of the biting criticism it received around its premiere. From the WWE to Fast & Furious, Johnson has decades of experience in show business, and for him, that means learning to roll with the punches, too.
“Our first two reviews came out,” he told People. “I’ll never forget it… They were amazing. I was like, wow.”
He then said, as “it sometimes happens,” reviews “went another way.” The new Moana movie, a remake of the original 2016 animated Disney movie, currently shows favorability ratings of 31% from critics and an 88% from audiences on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. IGN wasn’t too impressed with the movie either, awarding it a 6/10 review ahead of its premiere.
“That’s just the way it goes because we’re in this business,” Johnson said.
He continued: “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 right now.”
Johnson went on to explain his feelings, saying, “If you love it, great. If you don’t, no problem.” As Moana struggles to reach a wide audience in theaters, what John said meant the most to him was that “the culture really stood up.” For him, bringing Polynesian culture to the big screen in this way was “why the movie was made.”
“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,'” he said. “‘That’s us up there. How cool is that?'”
“The whole community, the whole culture really showed up and they understood,” Johnson’s wife, Lauren Hashian, added. “Even if you’re not Polynesian, I think we can understand family and love and loss and perseverance — especially as a mom. Having kids and watching it through their eyes, for me, it’s very magical.”
The seemingly overwhelming positivity from some online moviegoers also failed to translate to revenue in theaters. Moana’s opening weekend saw it bomb at the box office with just $95 million globally. It has a budget of $250 million, according to Variety, and as of last weekend, its fourth in theaters, it had accumulated just $261 million.
The live-action Moana may have failed to perform on the level of something like the Lilo & Stitch remake, but it doesn’t look like Disney is putting the brakes on its remake pipeline. A reimagining of classic fairytale movie Tangled is currently in production, with recent set leaks showing a first look at some of its cast. For more, you can read about how Johnson laughed off comments about his Maui wig.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
