“Moana 2” has drawn 27.3 million views within the first five days of release on Disney+. It is now the third most successful Disney animated film to hit the platform.
The film, which features Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson stepping back into their roles as Moana and Maui, respectively, had the largest premiere on the platform in recent years since 2021’s “Encanto.”
The first “Moana,” which has amassed 1.4 billion hours streamed, retains the highest streaming numbers of any film on Disney+.
“Moana 2,” which was originally meant to be a Disney+ television show, was released in theaters on Nov. 28 and went on to earn more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
The sequel was directed by Dana Ledoux Miller, David G. Derrick Jr. and Jason Hand. Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear handled the music for the film, replacing Lin-Manuel Miranda who wrote the first film’s songs. Nicole Scherzinger, Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, Rose Matafeo, Temuera Morrison, David Fane and Hualālai Chung are also part of the cast.
Co-director Miller recently said that the first film was an emotional viewing experience for her: “I had never walked into a Regal Cinema and heard the voices of my people before. And to have one of them be a Disney princess changes everything. It says, ‘It’s OK to be Polynesian and be strong and adventurous and funny.’ You see yourself reflected on screen and that’s powerful.”
Variety critic Owen Gleiberman wrote that the “Moana 2” directors “stage the film with a standard impressive technical flair, a flow of movement that keeps your eyeballs dancing” but that the music lands like Miranda “knockoffs.”
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