Dana Walden Blames 'Moana 2' for the Live-Action 'Moana' Flop, While Confirming Company Layoffs

{
  "signal_id": "830ca02e-40a6-8af2-5ac2-cfae2685dc1f",
  "signal_type": "news",
  "signal_subtype": "has_revenue",
  "detected_at": "2026-10-01T21:38:26+00:00",
  "company": {
    "name": "Disney",
    "domain": "thewaltdisneycompany.com"
  },
  "data": {
    "url": "https://insidethemagic.net/2026/10/dana-walden-blames-moana-2-for-the-live-action-moana-flop-while-confirming-company-layoffs-el1/",
    "title": "Dana Walden Blames 'Moana 2' for the Live-Action 'Moana' Flop, While Confirming Company Layoffs - insidethemagic.net",
    "excerpt": "Credit: Disney/Edited: Inside the Magic Live-action Moana was projected to open at $85 million. It opened at $18 million. That is a disappointing weekend for Disney. That is a 79 percent shortfall against your own studio’s expectations, on a film that may ultimately lose more than $100 million. Numbers like that do not come from one bad decision. They come from several things going wrong at once, and when a studio executive finally addresses it publicly, the interesting part is which of those things they name. Dana Walden , Disney’s President and Chief Creative Officer, addressed it this week at Bloomberg’s Screentime, in a conversation that also covered Jimmy Kimmel’s future at ABC and this year’s layoffs. Her explanation for Moana names one factor. It is a real factor. It is also not the biggest one. Walden attributed the film’s performance to its proximity to Moana 2 , the animated sequel released in November 2024. “It’s so competitive right now that you have to have the right film at the right time, with audiences feeling a certain degree of demand,” she said. “I would say our live-action Moana , which is excellent, I think it was hurt by the proximity to our second animated version of Moana , which came together under unusual circumstances, but premiered about 18 months before this one. So perhaps there was not enough time to create a lot of pent-up demand for another...",
    "product": "Moana (live-action)",
    "summary": "Disney's live-action 'Moana' film had a disappointing opening weekend, earning $18 million against a projection of $85 million.",
    "planning": false,
    "image_url": "https://insidethemagic.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/moana-dana-walden-disney-el1.jpg",
    "confidence": 0.9,
    "product_data": {
      "name": "Moana (live-action)",
      "full_text": "Live-action Moana",
      "fuzzy_match": false
    },
    "product_tags": [
      "entertainment",
      "video"
    ],
    "published_at": "2026-10-01T21:38:26Z",
    "article_sentence": "Live-action Moana was projected to open at $85 million. It opened at $18 million.",
    "amount_normalized": 18000000
  }
}

curl https://signals.autobound.ai/v1/signals/830ca02e-40a6-8af2-5ac2-cfae2685dc1f \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $AUTOBOUND_API_KEY"

curl -X POST https://signals.autobound.ai/v1/companies/enrich \
  -H "X-API-KEY: $AUTOBOUND_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"domain":"thewaltdisneycompany.com","limit":20}'