‘Vaiana’ flops at the box office, and it’s another example that the same old audience no longer wants the same old thing

Whether we liked it or not, we all knew very well what was succeeding at the box office, especially after the pandemic: sequels, franchises and remakes, on a loop. With luck, maybe movies like Barbie or Oppenheimer might sneak in, but the doors of Hollywood seemed totally closed to new creators with something to say. However, something has “clicked” in 2026 and, although we’re still surrounded by movies from that “old Hollywood”, it seems that something has shifted with the general public, which is no longer willing to swallow the same mush again.

Moana sinking

Few things explain this fatigue better than the combo of Supergirl, Minions & Monsters and Moana: a franchise, a sequel and a remake, respectively, that no one has been interested in even though years ago they absolutely would have been. In particular, the Disney movie has opened with barely 43 million at the American box office and 95 million worldwide, a figure that looks even worse when you consider that it cost 250 million (not including advertising and marketing). Oof.

Yes, Spider-man: Brand New Day arrives in three weeks and we’re going to forget all about this almost immediately, but let’s not allow a hyper-popular character who hasn’t been overused yet to overshadow everything: the success of Obsession and Backrooms, and the likely hit of The Odyssey, make it clear that people want original stories, new points of view, creators who go much further than the mechanical. In the age of AI, the audience is asking for craftsmanship.

Of course, any change that happens in the Mecca of Cinema isn’t going to happen overnight. After all, even though Moana or Snow White didn’t take off, Lilo and Stitch did, and people at Disney are probably thinking that, simply, they just need to better manage audience expectations across the board. Maybe, with luck, stop prioritizing franchises, sequels and remakes: When was the last time a major studio created something new, after all?