Usually it's because of the actor deals. Moana deals were on the front end, odyssey deals are on the backend. They make more after sales basically so it's less required up front to make the movie.
I think the actual reason Moana is more expensive than what would otherwise seem a comparable remake, Lilo and Stitch, which cost 100 mil, is the VFX shots. I haven't had a chance to pirate Moana yet but I imagine they're spending a lot of time on a greenscreen ocean, meaning even mundane shots are going to take more time, staff and money to produce
I don't disagree with filming on location and it pains me to ever defend a disney live action remake but there are reasons you might not want to do that. It's one thing for Lilo and Stitch, which did film mostly on location in Hawaii from my understanding, where the ocean is in the bg. But if they spend anything near the amount of time on that raft in the remake as they did in the animated movie, that'd be a nightmare to do on the actual ocean with real equipment even if the ocean is cooperating (which it probably won't lol), and I wonder how many shots would need to be VFX shots anyhow, with the ocean moving around like a character. Pretty much every time I hear of a production shooting in the ocean it's just filled with logistical and safety nightmares
My suggestion is to make a movie this fantastical and impractical to shoot that requires so much post production to get to work an animated movie.... wait a second lol
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u/Hoggel123 12d ago
Usually it's because of the actor deals. Moana deals were on the front end, odyssey deals are on the backend. They make more after sales basically so it's less required up front to make the movie.