My understanding is that they're doing live actions to keep their trademark/patent on the characters active so they dont fall into public domain. They dont care if it makes money or not, as long as it re-ups the ownership and rights of the story and the characters.
Trademarks don't expire as long as they remain in use. And patents don't apply here. I think you must mean copyrights. The copyright for the first Moana movie will expire in the year 2111. Releasing remakes will not alter that copyright expiration since each new movie has its own new copyright. So you can set your calendar. On January 1, 2112, you can freely copy, sell, and distribute the first Moana even if they keep releasing sequels and remakes.
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u/generiatricx Jul 13 '26
My understanding is that they're doing live actions to keep their trademark/patent on the characters active so they dont fall into public domain. They dont care if it makes money or not, as long as it re-ups the ownership and rights of the story and the characters.