Moana and Evil Dead Burn flop at the box office

The theatrical landscape this weekend proved to be a sobering sight for major studios, with several highly anticipated films failing to meet expectations. It looks like the box office bloodbath continues, as neither Disney’s Moana nor Warner Bros.’ Evil Dead Burn managed to deliver the expected opening.

The outlook is particularly grim for Moana, which carries a colossal budget estimated between $200 million and $250 million. The film is aiming for an opening weekend in the $42 million range—a figure mirroring the disappointing launch of Snow White last year. While Disney has some international muscle thanks to stars like Dwayne Johnson, domestic performance remains the central concern.

Meanwhile, genre cinema faced unique struggles. The horror segment saw a particularly baffling result from Warner Bros.’ Evil Dead Burn. Forecasts suggested a healthy opening of $23 million, but reports indicate it opened with only about $15 million—a drop almost $10 million shy of the performance seen by its predecessor, Evil Dead Rise, which grossed $24 million. This suggests that Warner Bros. might need to seriously reconsider its summer release strategy for New Line-branded genre titles.

Other family and animated features also saw mixed results. Films like Minions & Monsters and Toy Story 5 are navigating the waters, bringing in $21 million and $19 million, respectively. While Minions & Monsters achieved an “okay” result, it was still seeing a significant week-over-week decline of about 43%.

Even critically acclaimed expansion efforts struggled to find traction. A24’s adaptation of Olivia Wilde’s The Invite posted a modest $4.3 million weekend, despite glowing reviews. This performance lagged behind the staying power of Angel Studios’ Young Washington>, which proved front-loaded its earnings, dropping 64% in its second weekend and netting an estimated $7 million.

The challenges extended into the superhero space as well. James Gunn’s new DC Universe film, Supergirl>, continued its challenging run, posting only a $3.8 million weekend. By the end of the weekend, its domestic gross was projected to sit at about $66 million, suggesting that the launch has yet to deliver the expected success for the new DCU.

Credit: JoBlo