Disney has been facing a streak of bleak box office fortunes. Its latest release ‘Wish’ too failed to perform on its opening weekend.
‘Wish’, a musical about the wishing star that so many Disney characters have wished upon in the studio’s century-long journey failed to attract families during its release on Thanksgiving. According to Variety, the movie collected a poor $31.7 million over the five-day long holiday.
‘Wish’ has joined the long list of tenpoles this year including The Marvels, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The Haunted Mansion, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Disney’s The Little Mermaid did manage to collect $569 million worldwide. However, the figure comes nowhere close to the billion dollar mark that the studio’s prior adaptations like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast reached with ease.
Pixar’s Elemental cleared $495 million globally after a rather disappointing opening weekend. Variety also reported that this was thanks to the audiences watching the film on Disney+. Hopes with ‘Wish’ are the same that it catches on on the OTT platform.
Disney’s only real success this year has been Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which had a relatively strong run, generating $845 million globally. However, analysts did expect the film, being the last of the trilogy to reach closer to the billion-dollar threshold. Variety’s report also mentioned that this year is the first since 2014 (excluding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021) that Disney has gone without a billion-dollar film release.
Think of this, after Disney had a dominating run in the box office all these years. 2019 was peak for the studio when seven of its films including Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King reached one billion globally. Disney had reached a point where it would get richer with literally anything it put in theatres. Well, with its roster of Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilms and its recent acquisition of Fox’s roster, one would certainly presume so. What could have possibly gone wrong?
Variety reported that analysts believe that there are several factors at play here. Of course, the pandemic forced people to shift to online streaming. But, there were also creative shortcomings and a large dependence on existing brands and IPs. For example, Avengers: Endgame was made out to be an unmissable cult event. However, The Marvels is just another page in the superhero playbook. Having grossed $76 million so far, it might just be the MCU’s (Marvel Cinematic Universe) lowest grossing movie ever.
Yes, people became more comfortable being able to watch films at home. The value of big cinema and big screen entertainment dropped. But, that’s not the only reason. Disney films are notoriously expensive. Production budgets are on an average around $200 million. And, this is excusing the $100 million they spend on marketing. To even be able to break-even is a high expectation that once was cakewalk. Now you may think that reaching this benchmark of even $500 million is a remarkable feat. And, it is for most studios worldwide. For Disney however, they need to surpass it and how to be able to rationalise the film’s existence. They sell value beyond the screen as well. There are multiple product lines, theme park attractions, online streaming releases, etc that bank on the revenue and crowd following that the films generate.
Disney does have hope that the numbers will recover. The new releases set for next year including ‘Inside Out 2’ and ‘The Lion King’ ‘spin-off ‘Mufasa’ are maybe successes that the studio can partially recover from. 2015’s Inside Out grossed $858 million worldwide and 2019’s live-action adaptation of The Lion King grossed $1.66 billion. It is a possibility that the sequels will have a successful run at the box office.
Furthermore, Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of Moana, Deadpool 3, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, that are all scheduled to release in 2024 as well as all the Avatar sequels that James Cameron plans to bring to life provide for an optimistic pathway to recovery.
Consequently, the reintroduction of the new X-Men and the Fantastic Four among other popular characters from its 20th century collection could help the MCU as well.
Well, there’s a lot being done to regain the box office throne. It’s a long but possible road to recovery. And, while you’re at it, Disney, you might want to give some thought to a live-action adaptation of ‘Frozen’ as well.