Growing up, just the thought of Disney alone had connotations of magic, fairytale and imagination. They’d built up such a prestigious reputation for their relentless pursuit of originality and creativity. Never ceasing to amaze with the new worlds they created for us to watch and explore. But these very foundations feel more fragile than ever. Disney is losing its identity. Money has taken over.
What Has Happened to Disney?
The main argument you read is that they’ve lost their innovation. No longer working tirelessly to create the next ‘Toy Story’ or ‘Cars’, rather opting to make more sequels to the already beloved franchises. This strategy is an effort to rely on a pre-existing fanbase, knowing they’ll go and see the film, which generates more revenue for Disney at the box office. This can be seen as a safer investment than an original film, as that has no guarantee of success.
But is That Truly a Fair Reflection of Their Strategy?
In the last five years, Disney has made 10 original movies. Now I’m sure this is a LOT more than you probably thought they had. Inevitably some are better than others, but there was a clear attempt at creating new, unique movies.
In the same time, they’ve created eight prequels/sequels. ‘Frozen II’, ‘Toy Story 4’ and ‘Inside Out 2’, the most notable ones.
So Disney has made more original movies than sequels in the last five years, but fans are still frustrated.
Why Are Fans Annoyed About More Sequel Movies?
For all our lives we’ve grown up with spectacular animated movies being made by Disney and Pixar. ‘Toy Story’, ‘Finding Nemo’, ‘Monsters, Inc’, you name it. Yet in the last few years, no new movies have had that special feeling about them. While sequels are incredibly enjoyable, so many of them in such a short space of time, can ruin the allure and appeal.
In Disney’s recent D23 convention, they announced they were working on another four more sequels.
This quickly led to an influx of criticism on social media.
While there is understandable frustration at the upcoming schedule, is it all Disney’s fault?
Fan Interaction And Box Office
Alongside these sequels, Disney announced they are working on two new original animated movies, Elio and Hoppers.
This news wasn’t met with much excitement, with most fans’ attention fixated upon the new sequels coming out.
This illustrates a large problem. Do enough people actually want to see original movies?
While people claim to want the ‘old Disney’ back, the box office results suggest otherwise…
Disney’s Box Office Failures
If we take a look at the last five years, the results are astounding. It’s pretty clear why Disney has opted to make sequels.
From ‘Wish’, ‘Elemental’, ‘Strange World’, ‘Turning Red’, ‘Encanto’, ‘Luca’, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’, ‘Soul’, ‘Onward’ and ‘Spies in Disguise’, the highest global box office was ‘Elemental’s $496 million.
The mean amount made between the 10 of them at the box office was just $171.6m. Altogether, it was $1.7 billion.
In comparison, ‘Inside Out 2’ alone made over $1.6 billion. It has become the highest-grossing animated film OF ALL TIME, surpassing ‘Frozen II’.
Those numbers alone, however, don’t tell the full story…
The Impact of COVID-19 and Disney +
Of the 10 original movies, six were directly impacted by COVID-19 and the release of Disney +.
In November 2019, Disney + was launched. This was a subscription-based streaming service, which gave fans the chance to watch all their favourite classics in one place. This was initially brought to select countries but by the end of March 2020, it had become more widely available.
Conveniently for Disney, this came at the same time as the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced people to stay at home.
‘Onward’ was released theatrically on March 6th in the USA, but its run was inevitably cut short by the pandemic.
Disney + And Their Exclusive Strategy
With cinemas shut, ‘Soul’ and ‘Luca’ were both released exclusively to their new streaming platform. They were later given a theatrical run but to an inevitably smaller audience. This is why the box office results were weaker.
In 2022, cinemas had opened but COVID-19 variants were still threatening. Subsequently, ‘Turning Red’ was released on Disney + but also in theatres where the streaming platform wasn’t available. It had initially planned for a worldwide release.
COVID-19 had forced Disney into a completely new plan having to focus on profit from their streaming platform rather than the box office.
A Successful Strategy
In 2021, ‘Luca’ was the most-streamed movie on televisions. ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ was third. Disney’s streaming strategy had worked.
Whether it’s an ultimately successful formula, is based upon whether Disney can get an influx of people to sign up to the streaming platform, using the allure of direct releases on there. They made $7.2 billion from it in 2022, which suggests it’s doing just that.
Sequel Strength
So, COVID-19 and Disney + have undoubtedly affected the box office numbers in recent years, but even with films after COVID-19 and those only released in cinemas, the profit of a sequel film is far higher. ‘Toy Story 4’ earned over $1 billion and ‘Incredibles 2’, $1.2 billion.
So why would Disney produce more original movies, when they can create one sequel movie that makes them more profit than multiple of those combined?
After several financial failures, you can hardly blame them for choosing the safe bet.
But while this is true, we can’t ignore the bad reception some of these films have had due to poor quality.
How Has Quality Effected The Box Office
There is definitely an argument for a lack of audience interaction with these original movies, but it’s impossible to ignore the overall lack of quality. It’s no coincidence that a film as good as the original Inside Out generated $850m, whereas the recent original movies are struggling to break $200m. Yes, a lot have been affected by COVID-19 and Disney +, but that doesn’t excuse the terrible results for those that weren’t impacted by it.
Some may argue that the poor results are due to a drop in cinema attendance after COVID-19 but the recent successes of films like ‘Barbie’ and ‘Inside Out 2’ hinder that theory.
However, films like ‘Elemental’ and ‘Wish’ did well but weren’t hugely liked.
‘Wish’ has a 5.6 rating on IMDB but earned just over $250m at the box office. This shows people made the effort to go, but were let down by what Disney produced.
Similarly, ‘Elemental’ earned just under $500m, which was a big commercial success but was only liked, and not loved by fans, earning a 7.0 score on IMDB.
Likewise, ‘Lightyear’ has a disappointing 6.1 rating on IMDB having had a $200m budget and earning only $226m.
Despite this, movies like ‘Soul’ and ‘Luca’ have been well-received, reaching 8.0 and 7.4 on IMDB respectively but neither strikes as a future classic to come, like ‘Inside Out’.
There has not been an overwhelmingly positive reception to an original movie since 2017’s ‘Coco’ seven years ago.
It’s clear that the quality of original movies just isn’t at the level that it once was, regardless of box office results.
Could This Lead to The Decline of Disney?
Yes.
Disney has green-lit so many sequels because they are safe bets, but this can only work for so long. Eventually, audiences will be completely desensitised and bored of them. To be able to keep making sequel movies, you need strong new original movies to be created, rather than relying on ‘Toy Story’ or ‘The Incredibles’.
But if they don’t improve their quality, fans will lose all trust in the company and stop going to see the films.
Ultimately, as seen with ‘Soul’ and ‘Luca’, they can still make good movies, so Disney just needs to focus on creating their next big hit, rather than relying on past successes.
If they do this, we could see the magic of Disney return once more!
