Disney’s live action adaptation of “Moana,” filmed for nine days on Oʻahu and sails into theaters on Friday, July 10.
"Moana" generated around $39 million in estimated economic impact for Hawaiʻi, said Georja Skinner, the chief officer of the creative industries division of the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. That number includes money spent on labor, vendors, contractors, transportation, and more.
“First of all, having a major production in Hawaiʻi does so many things, not just with the spend and the jobs that it generates, but also the on-the-job learning experience from being on major productions like this,” Skinner told Aloha State Daily. “And that's what helps inform our own local creative economy and our local content development, which is a big focus of our department going forward.”
The film stars Catherine Lagaʻaia as Moana and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — who was the voice of Maui in the original animated films — as the demigod. The 115-minute movie is directed by Thomas Kail.
Auliʻi Cravalho, the voice of the animated heroine in “Moana” and “Moana 2” is one of the executive producers of this movie.
The movie had 560 local resident hires, and 185 non-resident hires, Skinner said. Those hires have 39 job categories and include accountants, actors, production office support, special effects, stunts, transportation and on-set teachers.
Pre-production for "Moana" was comprised of 280 days of work over three years: 2022, 2023 and 2024, Skinner said. Work was halted by strikes in 2023.
The release of the live action “Moana” comes during the same week as Gov. Josh Green signing SB 2580, which amends the motion picture, digital media and film production tax credit to allow a 5% increase to current tax credit rates for productions that film on Oʻahu and Neighbor Islands, if at least 80% of the hires are local. The new legislation will bring the tax credit rates up to 27% on Oʻahu, and 32% on Neighbor Islands.
Filmmakers and movie industry professionals as well as politicians hope the new tax credits will make Hawaiʻi a more economically enticing place to make movies.
The legislation expands the tax credits to cover not just movies and television series but streaming platforms, such as Netflix and Apple TV. The total tax credits for all productions in a year will increase to $60 million, up from the current $50 million cap. If the total tax credits for a year exceed the cap, they may be claimed in the following year, a clause that sunsets on Dec. 31, 2037.
Independent producers and studios are already calling.
“We've had a ton of calls,” Skinner said. “From the moment that the bill signing happened — and before that — people were very interested in how it works, not just people that are coming in with a new project, but those that were on the ground this year that are still coming in, and those that are working with us now to make sure that they can qualify for the certain aspects and all of that good stuff.”
The legisislation stipulates that these new tax credits apply retroactively to costs incurred by productions filmed after Dec. 31, 2025, if these productions had at least 80% local hires. So far, in 2026, several large productions have filmed in the state including “Protecting Jared,” “Jumanji 3,” and Season 2 of the Netflix series “Untamed.”
In the future, Disney has also announced plans for “Lilo & Stitch 2,” a second live action movie, which would follow an earlier production that filmed entirely on Oʻahu.
Want a chance to win tickets to Disney’s live action adaptation of the animated film? Aloha State Daily is giving away tickets to see the movie on Saturday, July 18. Details.
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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
