‘Moana’ Wasn’t a Big Hit. Now It’s the Biggest Movie in America
As parents of little Elsas and Olafs everywhere will know, there’s nothing like a catchy tune in an animated film to capture kids’ imaginations — and keep the movie on constant rotation, sung-along to again and again.
When Moana, a family-friendly flick set in ancient Polynesia, was released in 2016, it was a box office meh. As reported by the WSJ, it didn’t pass the billion-dollar mark in theaters; it didn’t win any Oscars; and it was only the 7th biggest Disney film that year, with Finding Dory accruing more than double its total gross. Now, the tides of streaming have made Moana the biggest movie in America, being viewed for almost 45 billion minutes since 2020, by Nielsen estimates.
Moana’s rise up the ranks has been steady, and somewhat unprecedented: it was one of the most-watched movies in the US in 2020, 2021, and 2022, before becoming the top movie on streaming last year and this year. More broadly, Moana is indicative of a wider trend: wholesome sing-alongs are, by some distance, the biggest movies on streaming services in the last 4 years, with all of the top 10 classed as family animated movies, and 6 of those being musicals.