Moana follow-up may accelerate Disney's film studio comeback

Walt Disney Company's most streamed movie of all time has nothing to do with Star Wars, The Avengers, or the singing sisters of Frozen.

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It is Moana, an eight-year-old animated feature about a Pacific island girl trying to find her place in the world.

Since the Disney+ streaming service launched in late 2019, Moana (2016) has been among the four most-watched films on any streaming service every year, according to Nielsen data.

Fans have watched nearly 80 billion minutes of Moana, the equivalent of seeing the picture 748 million times. It has also been in the streaming top 10 almost all of 2024.

All that bodes well for the next chapter in the franchise, Moana 2, which opens in Singapore cinemas on Nov 28.

Disney has historically released some of its biggest animated hits over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, although some recent pictures, Strange World (2022) and Wish (2023), disappointed.

Moana 2 should help accelerate the comeback of Disney's film studio, which has released a number of hits in 2024, including superhero blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine from Marvel Studios and sci-fi sequel Alien: Romulus.

Disney is expected to post a US$306 million (S$408.4 million) quarterly profit in the division that includes those theatrical releases when it reports results on Nov 14, according to the average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Fandango, the largest online movie ticketing service, said Moana 2 has set the best first-day ticket pre-sales of any animated film in 2024.