Are you surprised that Disney's live-action Moana movie only barely beat Snow White at the box office?

On paper, Moana looked like it had several advantages over Snow White. The original animated Moana remains one of Disney's most-streamed films, Moana 2 was a billion-dollar global hit, Dwayne Johnson returned as Maui, and the movie opened in the lucrative summer season. Given those factors, many analysts expected it to comfortably outperform Snow White. Instead, it opened with about $43 million domestically and $95 million worldwide, only narrowly ahead of Snow White's roughly $42.7 million domestic opening. (AP News)

That said, the result becomes less surprising when you consider several headwinds:

Remake fatigue. Many moviegoers have become less enthusiastic about Disney's live-action remakes, especially when they closely mirror the animated originals.
The original is still fresh. Moana (2016) is less than a decade old and remains widely watched on streaming, so audiences may have felt there wasn't much reason for a remake. (The Wall Street Journal)
Recent franchise saturation. Moana 2 was released less than two years earlier, meaning audiences had only recently revisited the characters. (The Wall Street Journal)
Strong family competition. Other family films were already in theaters, dividing the audience. (AP News)
Critical reception. Reviews were mixed to negative, with many critics arguing the remake lacked the charm and originality of the animated version. (Rotten Tomatoes)

The interesting takeaway isn't just that Moana barely beat Snow White—it's that two of Disney's biggest modern animated properties produced live-action remakes that opened far below the heights once achieved by films like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, or Aladdin. That suggests audiences may be becoming much more selective about which remakes they consider worth seeing in theaters.