Disney films will severely disappoint in global cinemas in 2023

2023 was supposed to be a festive year for Disney, as the studio is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. But the studio has no reason to celebrate, as nearly every movie Disney has released this year has been a flop.

In 2023, no Disney film has grossed more than $1 billion. In 2019, 7 more films reached this milestone. In fact, since 2014, the studio has made at least 1 billion films a year (not counting the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021).

Huge budget failure
For Disney, 2023 is a year of big-budget failure, films in which Disney invested hundreds of millions, but which failed to turn a profit. Marvel movies, Pixar movies, the new Indiana Jones and the remake of the animated classic all underwhelmed at the box office.

Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny ($384 million), Haunted Mansion ($182 million), and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania ($467 million) all posted losses. The Little Mermaid grossed $569 million, but with a budget of more than $250 million, that wasn’t enough to turn a profit. The remake of The Lion King grossed $1.6 billion in revenue in 2019.

marvel
Marvel is also in trouble. Whereas just a few years ago, almost every Marvel movie would become a billionaire, the studio is now losing more and more money. With the most recent film, The Marvels, the studio suffered its first real failure. On a budget of $270 million, the film grossed less than $200 million.

Disney’s latest animated film, Wish, is also having a hard time getting off the ground. The new animated musical grossed just under $48.9 million worldwide in its opening weekend.

what is going on?
We can only speculate about the reasons why Disney movies perform so poorly. The popularity of streaming, the questionable quality of recent films, fans tired of superhero movies, and Hollywood strikes are some of the reasons that undoubtedly contributed to Disney’s bad year.

However, Disney is still having some successes. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 raised $845 million this summer. Despite a disappointing opening, Pixar’s Elemental still managed to gross $495 million.