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Credit: Inside the MagicDisney CEO Bob Iger is raising some eyebrows with his recent comments during the Morgan Stanley conference yesterday. While the head of the House of Mouse had a lot to say about the entertainment and theme park sectors of the company, it was his comments about the recent history of entertainment projects that caused a bit of a stir among Disney fans.
2023 was undoubtedly a tough year for the Walt Disney Company as it faced disappointing performances across the board, with a drop in attendance at its theme parks along with poor theatrical box office responses to both Disney and Marvel releases. In fact, 2023 was the first time in almost a decade that Walt Disney Studios lost its reigning crown to another studio for best-performing releases. While two of the three Marvel releases became the worst-performing MCU films of all time, the Disney live-action remakes continued to disappoint. This was also happening alongside the actors’ and writers’ Hollywood strikes that caused several delays last year.
Disney’s focus on live-action remakes of some of its most beloved animated classics has caused quite a bit of controversy in recent years as they continue to underperform and underwhelm. While 2015’s Cinderella is arguably the best live-action remake, the 2017 Beauty and the Beast and 2019 Aladdin remakes are the only handful out of almost a dozen that have actually been well-received. The live-action The Little Mermaid that was released last year faced a lot of backlash for its colorblind casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel, while the upcoming 2025 Snow White remake is facing criticism for the same reason.
Overall, the Walt Disney Company desperately needs to regain its footing in the entertainment sector, and a recent studio shakeup seems to be working towards that goal. Newly appointed President of Disney Studios, David Greenbaum, has been tasked to lead the live-action and 20th Century Studios sectors of the Walt Disney Company, and he’s already stirred the pot with his take on Disney’s releases. It seems as though Greenbaum’s focus when greenlighting future films will be “does this movie need to exist?” according to reports of previous meetings between the new president and CEO Bob Iger.
While this could be good news for Disney fans and a significant decline in live-action releases, it’s interesting given Iger’s own recent comments about prior Disney projects. During the conference, Iger discussed unreleased projects, stating, “It’s not an easy thing, but you got to make those tough calls. We’ve actually made those tough calls. We’ve not been that public about it, but we’ve killed a few projects already that we just didn’t feel were strong enough.”
The comments have gained some attention from Disney fans given the string of releases that have failed to hit the mark with audiences. Between the disappointing live-actions and Pixar’s hit-or-miss releases like Strange World (2022), Lightyear (2022), and the most recent release Elemental (2023), it’s hard not to question just how bad the projects that didn’t get greenlit were if those were the competition. Of course, we’ll likely never know what projects were left on the cutting room floor, but it certainly raises questions.
With the new president, hopefully, Disney will be able to return to its former glory as the king of entertainment. The highly focused concentration on churning out nonstop live-action remakes has only become more controversial and more opposed as the studio leans even further into the decision, and it’s interesting to wonder if one of the projects that “weren’t strong enough” may have actually been better. Either way, Disney desperately needs to find a new direction to recoup its losses, both financially and critically. But we’ll take a moment to mourn what might have been.
What do you think about Disney’s focus on live-action remakes? Do you think the studio has made the right choices between what it’s decided to release and what it may have decided to cut? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.