业内分析人士指出，真人版《海洋奇缘》距离动画原版仅隔10年、距离续集仅隔两年便推出，时间间隔过短，难以培养新的观众群体。相比之下，迪士尼在2016年至2019年间推出的《乞丐王子》、《美女与野兽》、《阿拉丁》和《狮子王》等真人翻拍片，每部票房均接近或超过10亿美元，而近年来的翻拍作品票房普遍腰斩。
尽管影院票房表现不佳，迪士尼电影仍可透过付费点播和Disney+串流平台获得后续收益，且观众在烂番茄上给予该片90%的好评率。然而，《海洋奇缘》的低迷开局削弱了该系列推出真人版续集或衍生作品的可能性，加上《星际大战》新片《曼达洛人与乖乖》同样表现不佳，为迪士尼这个暑期档蒙上阴影，不过《乖乖穿Prada 2》和皮克斯的《玩具总动员5》则取得了重大成功。
Disney's live-action Moana opened to just $43 million in US and Canadian ticket sales over its debut weekend, a disappointing result for a $250 million production. The film holds only a 35% critics' approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and pales in comparison to the beloved 2016 animated original—the most-streamed movie in the US since 2020—and the animated Moana 2, which grossed over $1 billion at the box office.
Industry analysts argue that releasing the live-action remake only 10 years after the original and just two years after its animated sequel was too short a turnaround to build a new audience. Disney's earlier live-action remakes from 2016 to 2019, including The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, each earned close to or more than $1 billion, whereas more recent entries like The Little Mermaid and Mufasa: The Lion King saw their grosses roughly halved.
While underperforming films can still find success through pay-per-view and Disney+ streaming—and audiences gave the live-action Moana a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes—the weak opening diminishes prospects for a live-action sequel or spinoff. Combined with the poor performance of The Mandalorian and Grogu, it marks a low point in Disney's summer slate, though the studio has scored major wins with The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Pixar's Toy Story 5.