A prominent box office analyst suggested that the Walt Disney Co. has incurred losses exceeding $890 million on its latest eight studio films.
The movies contributing to the hefty loss include “Lightyear,” “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Strange World,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “Elemental.”
The cost to produce these eight films is roughly estimated at around $2.75 billion, but they only managed to rake in about $1.86 billion. However, this calculation doesn’t account for the marketing costs. Taking that into consideration, the losses might well exceed $890 million.
There’s another question worth pondering – isn’t Disney losing more money by having these films destined for their streaming service, Disney Plus, instead of licensing them to other streaming platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video?
Disney’s most recent underperformer is “Elemental,” with a production budget of $200 million. Yet it only garnered $29 million on its opening weekend, setting a new low in Pixar’s 28-year history. As of now, it has grossed a lukewarm $65 million domestically.
There might be more bad news for Disney as the upcoming “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is predicted to have a less than satisfactory performance when it premieres this Friday.
Last week saw the sudden departure of Disney’s “Diversity Chief,” Latondra Newton, who had been tasked with diversifying content since 2017. Whether her hasty exit connects with Disney’s recent string of box office disappointments is worth wondering.
In an industry as unpredictable as Hollywood, there are no guarantees for success. Despite its recent disappointing releases, Disney, a longstanding industry titan, has the resources and reputation to rebound. How they react to these setbacks and adapt their strategies could set a precedent for other major studios navigating a rapidly changing entertainment landscape. Only time will tell if the recent failures are just a blip on the radar or indicative of a more substantial trend requiring profound structural changes.
