Moana 2 Streaming Surge Proves Dwayne Johnson Didn’t Need Black Adam To Outpace Marvel Movies

Disney is spiking the football over Moana 2 on Disney+, and the numbers they’re touting are wild enough to make even Marvel blink. And yes, Dwayne Johnson is back as Maui, which is a fun full-circle twist given how his last superhero outing stacked up on streaming.

Disney says Moana 2 is the movie of the year on Disney+

According to Disney’s own rundown, Moana 2 didn’t just do well on the platform after hitting streaming earlier this year — it crushed. The company is calling it the most-watched movie in every single U.S. state and nearly every country in 2025. On top of that, Disney says the sequel has already racked up over 80 million rewatches. Big if true, and a very loud flex for a follow-up that quietly slid onto Disney+ not long after theaters.

The rest of Disney+ had a big year too

• Sons of Anarchy, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Spidey Amazing Friends, and Malcolm in the Middle all joined the billion-hours-streamed club.
• May the 4th was the single most-watched day of the year in the U.S., thanks to the usual Force-fueled bingeing.
• Bluey was the most-watched series of the year, with 26.5 million rewatches.
• ABC News topped the charts as the most-watched streaming channel.
• Dancing with the Stars pulled in over half a billion votes and was Disney+’s most-watched live title.
• Devil In The Family: The Fall Of Ruby Franke became the most-viewed docuseries.

So where does that leave The Rock’s other big swing, Black Adam?

The Moana 2 victory lap comes with a not-so-subtle subtext: Johnson didn’t need Black Adam to outpace Marvel on streaming. The DC film had a decent debut on HBO Max back in 2022, but not a record-breaker. Samba TV measured 1.2 million U.S. households in its first three days, enough to be No. 1 on that platform at the time — but still behind Marvel titles that hit Disney+ around the same period: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2.1 million), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (1.7 million), and Thor: Love and Thunder (1.5 million).

It also trailed a few heavy hitters on the DC side: The Batman (4.1 million homes), Wonder Woman 1984 (3.2 million), and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2.2 million).

"While the streaming debut on HBO Max fell short compared to other superhero films, it was a hit with younger and diverse audiences. Appealing to these younger, more diverse audiences is critical as Max continues to find new growth opportunities and widen its subscriber base."

- Dallas Lawrence, SVP at Samba TV

Samba TV also noted Black Adam indexed nearly 25% higher among Black households than the national average, with Gen Z and Millennials over-indexing too. So the film clearly found a specific audience — it just didn’t hit the same overall streaming heights as the biggest Marvel and DC entries.

Ratings and the money question

If you’re wondering how this squares with reception, the numbers being floated around look like this: Moana 2 sits at 6.3/10 on IMDb. Rotten Tomatoes is a little messy depending on when you check — cited as 60% in one place and 65% in another — with an audience score around 85%. Box office? The sequel’s been pegged at about $1.05 billion worldwide.

Black Adam’s report card: 6.1/10 on IMDb, 39% on Rotten Tomatoes, and $393 million at the global box office.

Fans are side-eyeing Moana 2’s Disney+ crown

Here’s where the vibes and the data don’t quite match for some people: despite Disney pounding the table about Moana 2’s dominance, a chunk of the internet is very skeptical. The general reaction on X over the past couple days has been a mix of disbelief, "I didn’t even know there was a Moana 2," and jokes about autoplay doing the heavy lifting. A few parents said their kids loved the first movie but didn’t bother revisiting the sequel after theaters. Others claimed they watched it once and never looked back.

That push-pull — divisive word-of-mouth vs. massive rewatch counts — is definitely one of those nerdy metrics stories that makes you tilt your head. But Disney’s claim is clear: by their viewership math, Moana 2 ruled the platform this year.

The quick takeaway

Disney is planting a flag: Moana 2 is their streaming champ, everywhere it counts. The Rock’s DC detour didn’t top Marvel on streaming, but his trip back to Motunui apparently did. Whether you buy the scale of those rewatch numbers or not, the company’s story for 2025 is simple — families (and a lot of them) kept hitting play on a Polynesian sequel.

Moana 2 is streaming on Disney+. Black Adam is available on HBO Max.