‘Moana 2’ Is Disney’s Biggest Animated Trailer Release Ever; When Can You Stream Musical Sequel?
‘Moana 2’ Is Disney’s Biggest Animated Trailer Release Ever; When Can You Stream Musical Sequel?
The trailer pulled in more than 170 million views in its first day of availability, but will fans be able to stream it before the end of 2024?
It’s safe to say that the sequel to Disney’s 2016 animated hit “Moana” has been hotly anticipated by audiences. The teaser trailer for “Moana 2” was released on Wednesday, May 29, and according to the studio, it has racked up 178 million views in its first 24 hours of availability, which is a record for an animated Disney film. Viewers who want to stream it at home are in for a bit of a wait, but I’ll use past Disney releases to try and predict when “Moana 2” will be available to watch on-demand.
Key Details:
- The “Moana 2” trailer beat out old record-holders like “Inside Out 2,” “Frozen 2” and “The Incredibles 2.”
- As a Disney animated movie, “Moana 2” will stream on Disney+ alongside the first movie in the franchise.
- “Moana 2” releases in theaters on November 27, which all but guarantees it won’t stream on-demand until 2025.
Watch the Record-Breaking Trailer for ‘Moana 2’:
“Moana 2” will feature the reunion of Moana and the demigod Maui three years after the events of the first film as the pair goes on an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced. This follow-up film was originally intended to be an animated series, but after execs got a first look at what the creators were working on, they decided to pivot to making it a big-screen, holiday release.
It likely also doesn’t hurt that seven years after its initial release, the original “Moana” was the most streamed movie of 2022, not just on Disney+, but on any platform in the United States. According to Nielsen, the first “Moana” was the most-streamed movie of all in 2023, compiling 11.6 billion streaming minutes over the course of the year. That would be enough to stream the movie from start to finish 775 million times.
Disney was well represented on the list with “Encanto” finishing second, “Elemental” coming in fourth, “Frozen” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” finishing seventh and eighth respectively, and “Avatar: The Way of the Water” ending the year in ninth. The latter film, however, did not stream exclusively on Disney+, as contractual provisos had it appearing on Max as well.
Earlier this week, the “Moana 2” trailer’s 178 million views beat out other Disney animated films like “Inside Out 2” (157 million views in 2023), “Frozen 2” (116 million views in 2019) and “Incredibles 2” (113 million views in 2017).
When Can You Stream ‘Moana 2’ at Home?
The good news is that as a Disney film, there’s no mystery as to where “Moana 2” will be available to stream on-demand. Disney+ will be the movie’s home, allowing viewers to watch it alongside “Moana” back to back when it exits its period of exclusivity in theaters and on premium video-on-demand (PVOD) platforms like Prime Video and the Apple TV store.
Will that happen in 2024? Almost certainly not. “Moana 2” is currently slated to be released on Wednesday, Nov. 27 of this year, the day before Thanksgiving, which will allow Disney to capitalize on the holiday viewing period. Since 2024 ends a little more than 30 days later, and 45 days is the absolute bare minimum theatrical window agreed to by theaters and studios, there’s nearly no chance that “Moana 2” will arrive on Disney+ before 2025.
The last two Disney animated movies to head to theaters were “Elemental” in June 2023, and “Wish” in November. “Elemental” took a total of 89 days to reach Disney+, while “Wish” spent nearly two months longer in theaters and on PVOD platforms, taking 147 days to arrive for on-demand streaming. The difference is all the more surprising considering “Elemental” made nearly $500 million at the box office, while “Wish” grossed approximately $255 million.
Still, I think “Moana 2” will follow a release window closer to that of “Wish.” Demand for the movie is clearly quite high considering the performance of the trailer, and Disney will want to take full advantage of the holiday movie season. The one X-factor that could bring “Moana 2” to streaming faster is the lack of Hollywood work stoppages this year; in 2023, WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes caused the fall TV schedule to be thrown completely off track. Disney likely extended the theatrical stay of “Wish” because there wasn’t much in the way of new TV for viewers to enjoy in the fall/winter of 2023-24, but “Moana 2” won’t enjoy that same lack of competition.
It’s hard to predict how the return of films and scripted TV will affect theatrical windows this fall, so I’ll split the difference between our last two examples and go with a theatrical window prognostication of 121 days for “Moana 2.” That will send it to Disney+ on Friday, March 28, where it will have a chance to break even more records for the company.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”