Moana Officially Sets Digital Release Date After Box Office Bomb

September 1, 2026, 11:57am

Disney’s summer at the box office delivered mixed results. Toy Story 5 was a massive hit, grossing $1.136 billion worldwide, but the Mouse House also had two notable disappointments. A couple of months after The Mandalorian and Grogu became the lowest-grossing Star Wars movie of all time, the live-action Moana remake failed to live up to expectations. Hampered by largely negative reviews (32% on Rotten Tomatoes), Moana opened with just $43.1 million domestically and earned $315.3 million against a $250 million production budget. At one point, reports indicated it could lose over $100 million at the box office, but the movie is about to get a new lease on life.

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According to Variety, Disney has set home media release dates for Moana. It will be available to rent and purchase on Digital platforms beginning September 8th, with the 4K and Blu-ray hitting shelves about a month later on October 6th. A Disney+ streaming date was not part of this announcement.

Can Moana Rebound On Home Media?

Disney admitted that Moana underwhelmed at the box office, but they weren’t overly concerned due to the other revenue streams available to the company. When discussing the performance of Moana and The Mandalorian and Grogu, Disney executives were quick to point out how these projects can fuel merchandise sales, theme park attendance, and streaming numbers, ultimately making the investment worthwhile. Home media sales are part of this equation as well. Studios can’t rely too heavily on physical media these days like they could in the ’90s and 2000s, but Digital rentals and purchases can provide a boost.

Moana‘s bottom line could benefit from its Digital release. One of the main reasons why the film bombed in theaters is the fact that it didn’t feel like a must-see cinematic event on the big screen. Especially once the reviews came in and Moana became one of the lowest-rated live-action Disney remakes, general audiences knew it probably wouldn’t be worth a trip to the theater. Families had more appealing options to choose from at the time (Toy Story 5, Minions & Monsters), and the original animated Moana was right there to watch at home. People didn’t understand why they should pay to see an arguably inferior version of a movie they could stream in their living room, which hurt Moana‘s box office prospects.

It’s quite common for box office bombs to find a larger audience at home. Viewers have an easier time taking a chance on something with mixed-to-negative reviews when all they have to do is push play at home (for a one-time rental/purchase fee, which is cheaper than buying tickets and concessions for the whole family). There are probably a lot of people interested in seeing the live-action Moana who decided to bookmark it for the home media release. Obviously, that’s not going to make up for the low box office grosses (which are still important in the long run), but it’s something else for Disney execs to find a bit of solace in when reviewing their financials.

For those holding out for the Disney+ release, there’s probably still a bit of a wait. Disney doesn’t want to undercut Digital and Blu-ray sales by revealing when Moana will be able to stream for “free” right now. Moana will likely hit the service shortly after the Blu-ray release. As a point of comparison, Toy Story 5 hits Disney+ a day after the Blu-ray goes on sale, and The Mandalorian & Grogu is streaming a week after its own physical release. This means Moana should be on Disney+ at some point around mid-October, giving the Digital release a buffer to boost the bottom line.