Disney couldn’t be happier that 2023 is in the rearview mirror.
The year saw the mega studio cut thousands of jobs and memory hole original shows like “Willow.” The company’s streaming service struggled for profitably, and the year paved the way for a public defeat at the hands of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The documentary “Walt’s Disenchanted Kingdom,” featuring this critic, captured some of the recent chaos around the company.
The Mouse House just got a painful reminder of the year that was, courtesy of Deadline.
The venerable entertainment news site, which typically tries to defend Hollywood, pulled no punches in crushing the numbers this week. The article in question, “Disney Detonates Four Bombs In Deadline’s 2023 Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament,” says it all.
The numbers scream it even louder.
“The Marvels,” one of the biggest box office turkeys in recent years, leads the pack by costing its studio $237 million, according to the site’s trusted number crunchers.
The first film in the short-lived saga, 2019’s “Captain Marvel,” earned more than $1 billion worldwide on the heels of “Avengers: Infinity War.”
The sequel, which featured a key figure from the Disney+ MCU universe, got a chilly reception from fans and tepid applause from critics.
The film opened with a jaw-dropping $46 million – a far cry from what most MCU films make. The film topped off at $84 million domestic and $121 million from international sales.
Superhero films must earn much, much more to turn a profit.
“The Marvels'” budget stood at a reported $270 million, and that doesn’t include the massive marketing costs associated with a title of its size.
Deadline notes three other Disney titles also lost a not-so-small fortune last year, including “Haunted Mansion” ($117 million), “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” ($143 million) and “Wish” ($131 million).
Disney hopes 2024 offers a better balance sheet. The studio will deliver “Inside Out” 2 this summer, followed by “Moana 2” in November. Both titles bank on strong source material and tease out relatively fresh storylines.
A shakier bet is “Mufasa: The Lion King,” a prequel to the beloved 1994 movie directed by Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins. That drops days before Christmas.
Why the cloudy outlook?
The Disney brand isn’t what it used to be, and audiences could be tiring of quasi-live-action tales spun from the studio’s IP factory.
Last year’s “Little Mermaid” live-action update earned a solid $298 million stateside but stumbled overseas compared to previous Disney titles ($271 million).
The post ‘The Marvels’ Set Disney Back How Much? appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
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