Overview
- Dana Walden told Bloomberg’s Screentime Thursday that live-action Moana was “hurt” by its release about 18 months after the animated sequel, which she said left insufficient pent-up demand for another film.
- The movie opened far below expectations with a projected $85 million opening turned into an $18 million debut and roughly $323 million in global box office, a shortfall that multiple outlets say could leave the studio more than $100 million down.
- Critics and early word-of-mouth, reflected in low review scores, and direct competition from Pixar’s Toy Story 5, which crossed $1 billion, are cited by reporters as additional and likely larger drivers of the film’s collapse.
- Walden described the most recent round of cuts as a voluntary retirement program, a framing that conflicts with reporting that late-September reductions affected a few hundred mostly tech and HR employees who were reported as involuntary.
- On ABC programming, Walden said she is “working on” Jimmy Kimmel’s future and framed the choice as an economic question tied to a shrinking late-night broadcast audience while regulators are conducting an early FCC review of ABC’s licenses.