This is not trying to open a can of worms…
The loosely female audience when they are not being pandered to with trying to be onboarded to a ‘male franchise’ is exceptionally strong. We saw it with Barbie, I think this is in part the same audience.
The female audience may be finally having its turn controlling the tentpole franchise flow moving forward, if studios ‘get’ what it is they actually want. Hollywood has always been male first and it’s great if they can take it four quad, but we are seeing exceptions to that rule.
As you are saying I think we’re all watching something that’s quite puzzling to all of us. I got Barbie. Inside Out was not in their top ten annual movies being streamed. Coco, Zootopia, Turning Red, Luca, Frozen, Moana, Encanto, Elemental are all franchises I think Disney ‘thought’ were much bigger.