Without Disney Magic, Winter Box Office Tanks Hard

in Entertainment, Movies

Asha (Ariana DeBose) holding a wishing star in Disney's 'Wish' (2023)

Credit: Disney

The first two months of 2024 have proven to be unusually quiet for domestic ticket sales, suggesting that the absence of Disney at this year’s winter box office is directly correlated to these alarmingly low grosses.

Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) in Avatar
Credit: Disney

Related: Disney Had Eight Successes in a Year of Flops in 2023

The Walt Disney Company’s Tumultuous 2023

High-budget box office bombs

Recent years have been — to put it lightly — abysmal for movie theaters. It’s no secret that many venues took a significant hit due to the pandemic, and now, the aftereffects of the now-resolved WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes could threaten to shutter some studios for good.

The Walt Disney Company, in particular, suffered blow after blow throughout the past year due to historic box office bombs like Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2022) and Marvel Studios’ The Marvels (2023), in addition to its own animated endeavor, Wish (2023). Each of these films failed to earn back its production budget, especially the fifth Indy adventure, which cost an estimated $295 million to make.

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
Credit: Lucasfilm

Related: Studio Honors Classic Love Stories in Disney+ Event

Of course, Disney’s box office hauls are all relative, given that even the worst “flop” for Disney would be considered a smashing success for a smaller production company. However, given that Disney movies are incredibly costly to make, earning back nowhere near their budgets is all the more devastating. All of this led to Disney not snagging one of the top three movies of the year despite its extensive efforts to promote The Little Mermaid (2023) and Pixar’s Elemental (2023). 

Universal overtakes Disney as top-grossing studio in Hollywood

Once upon a time, Disney could do no wrong — especially at the box office. It was virtually a guarantee that the studio’s clever, heartfelt, and quippy family-friendly romps would score big with audiences, as Frozen (2013) and the live-action remakes of Beauty and the Beast (2017) and The Lion King (2019) all grossed well over $1 billion.

Elsa (L) and Anna (R) holding hands in 'Frozen'
Credit: Disney

Poor box office numbers aside, the once-mighty House of Mouse has also taken an undeniable market tumble recently as the company’s stock prices continue to suffer. As a matter of fact, Universal Pictures was actually named the highest-earning studio of 2023, overtaking Disney for the first time in years after amassing $4.907 billion in worldwide ticket sales thanks to buzzy releases like Oppenheimer (2023) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), per Variety.

Lay-offs, cost-reductions, and Disney+ content purge

3.2% of Disney’s total employee headcount received the pink slip earlier this year when CEO Bob Iger slashed thousands of jobs as part of the company’s cost-cutting initiative. But that wasn’t the only effort made to save a few pennies here and there. The Disney+ Willow series, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers all vanished from the platform in May 2023. This did save the company $387 million in Q4, but at the cost of understandable outrage from many.

DIsney CEO Bob Iger MasterClass Business Strategy and Leadership
Photo: Masterclass

Disney’s 2024 Release Slate

Sequels and live-action remakes galore

With 2023 being one of the Walt Disney Company’s worst years to date, box office analysts are understandably skeptical about 2024. Still, some surefire wins seem to be on the horizon via sequels like the recently-announced Moana 2 (2024) and Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). Mufasa: The Lion King (2024), Barry Jenkins’ live-action Lion Prequel, also hits theaters in December, which will surely rake in big bucks for Disney.

Moana and Maui
Credit: Disney

Shifting away from MCU releases

Interestingly enough, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool threequel will be the only Marvel Studios film to arrive on the big screen this year as the superhero studio continues to reevaluate its release strategy. Given that the MCU hasn’t exactly managed to rekindle some of that same Infinity Saga magic with Disney+ spinoffs like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Secret Invasionand movies like Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), fans have long accused the brand of putting quantity over quality.

To remedy this, Bob Iger recently confirmed that the MCU will go through some significant changes in the coming years, stating they will be “slowing down” Marvel productions in favor of focusing on their stronger franchises during Disney’s latest earnings call. Only time will tell if this will turn out to be a good thing for both brands, but given that Avengers: Endgame (2019) remains one of the highest-earning movies of all time, there’s no denying that MCU flicks are huge money-makers.

Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson in the teaser for 'Deadpool & Wolverine'
Credit: Marvel Studios

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