Since its creation, the Walt Disney Company has been known primarily for its storytelling through filmmaking. For the past 100 years, Disney has been one of the world’s foremost experts in creating captivating and innovative media content. Not only are Disney’s film contributions meaningful to fans, but they have also been incredibly lucrative for the company.
Disney today means much more than just films; the company has numerous other ventures, including the highly popular Disney theme Parks. Unfortunately, it is looking more and more like these other ventures are working out better for the company than their movie and television releases.
A Rocky Road for Disney
Despite Disney CEO Bob Iger saying that the company is focussing on “quality over quantity” when it comes to its films, things are not looking great for the film studio. Data is now suggesting that Disney has lost nearly $900 million on some of their most recent films. This shocking nosedive has more than a few fans concerned about the future of Disney.
Last June, Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios released the film Lightyear, a film about the “real life” of Buzz Lightyear. On all accounts, the theatrical release was a flop, and unfortunately, it may have put Disney in a rut they could not get out of.
A Year of Disaster
The seven films released by Disney since Lightyear are Thor: Love and Thunder, Strange World, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Little Mermaid, and Elemental. While some of these films were loved by fans, none of them were incredibly lucrative for the company. When you look at this year as a whole, there have certainly been quite a few box office flops.
According to Audacy and Valiant Renegade, these eight films cost a combined $2.75 billion to make. At the end of the day, they only brought it $1.86 billion combined. This means that since June of last year, Disney’s new releases lost the company around $890 million. It is important to note that the Disney streaming app, Disney+, has also lost additional money.
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In short, this is not looking great for the company. Disney needs a massive hit… and fast. With The Little Mermaid just not surpassing the $500 million in revenue mark and Elemental completely flopping since opening weekend, it is clear that Disney is going to have to do whatever it takes to create a hit.