3
Credit:DisneyIf The Walt Disney Company and its production studios are in the breaking-even business, then 2025 was an excellent year for the company. However, Disney really likes making money, so this year wasn’t nearly as great as they expected.
Disney had high hopes coming off 2024, which saw the company release three billion-dollar films. And 2025 was supposed to be the return of Marvel blockbusters and Disney’s animation dominance. However, it was not to be.
This year, Disney released two of its biggest flops ever in Snow White and Tron: Ares, both of which lost well over $100 million. Even Marvel’s Thunderbolts* lost $100 million. Captain America: Brave New World broke even, while Fantastic Four: First Steps only cleared $100 million at the box office.
That left the live-action Lilo & Stitch as this year’s lone bright spot, so far, for The Walt Disney Company. But with so many bombs this year, that got us thinking about what Disney films have lost the most money in the company’s history. Ironically enough, a large portion of them have come since the end of the pandemic.
Disney’s Biggest Box Office Bombs
It is difficult to pinpoint exactly how much Disney movies have lost, as the company does not release exact figures for all films. However, using available data, it’s possible to obtain a fairly accurate estimate of what some of these films have lost.
Two years ago, Disney had possibly its worst year ever, with 2023 producing two of its biggest box office failures ever, including the biggest loser from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2023, The Marvels and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny collectively lost over $400 million. Some estimates put that number close to $500 million for the two flops.
The previous year was no better, with Lightyear and Strange World combining to lose over $200 million. In case you lost count, that’s over $600 million from four movies over a two-year period. Helps to explain why Bob Chapek is unemployed.
But Disney’s biggest losers come from a time before the pandemic. Disney’s second biggest loser was Johnny Depp’s The Lone Ranger (2013), which lost an estimated $256 million.
And number one on this list is 2012’s John Carter. The biggest loser in Disney’s history was meant to be a trilogy, but that quickly died after it lost an estimated $274 million at the box office.
Disney can take some solace in knowing that it doesn’t have another John Carter on its hands, and with Zootopia 2 and Avatar Fire and Ash hitting theaters soon, there’s still some hope for 2025.
What’s your favorite Disney movie that bombed at the box office? Let us know in the comments.