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Disney (and others) at the Box Office - Current State of Affairs
- Thread starter Disney Analyst
- Start date
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
A few more stops to go. It will become WDAS’ third highest grossing film ever as it passes Zootopia in the next couple weeks. Then we’ll see where it settles into the top 50 all time.
The craziest statistic is Disney has 32 / 56 (1B+) movies at the box office. It has been an unprecedented run for them and 2024 was an above average year adding three.
We’re hoping to see three again this year… for sure for sure one, I can’t imagine the wheels come off Avatar that much.
DisneyWarrior27
Active Member
As of today, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ #Moana2 has officially hit $1 billion worldwide. The third Disney film of 2024 to hit a billion this year (after Pixar’s #InsideOut2 & Marvel Studios’ #DeadpoolAndWolverine). That means the top 3 global earners of 2024 are not only billion dollar hits, but Disney movies too.
And also, #Moana2 making this much means 2 things:
1. That Disney might have some faith in diverse movies at the box office (ones that are female-led & starring folks of color), since this one’s lead character was voiced by a BI-WOC and one of its three directors and two writers who worked on this movie was a woman (Dana Ledoux Miller), especially in the wake of past and recent events have put Pixar’s next original stories on the edge.
And 2. That the possibilities are now open for any Disney+ series in development to maybe go into production as a movie. The only question is which one is going to be next in the pipeline? #TheMandalorianAndGroguAStarWarsStory and #Bluey’s movie are already in post-production and pre-production for theatrical releases in 2026 and 2027. Marvel Studios’ #ArmorWars is also still being written for theatrical release after The Multiverse Saga ends (at least for now). So, what’s next? It won’t be #Tiana. But what could be next? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
And also, #Moana2 making this much means 2 things:
1. That Disney might have some faith in diverse movies at the box office (ones that are female-led & starring folks of color), since this one’s lead character was voiced by a BI-WOC and one of its three directors and two writers who worked on this movie was a woman (Dana Ledoux Miller), especially in the wake of past and recent events have put Pixar’s next original stories on the edge.
And 2. That the possibilities are now open for any Disney+ series in development to maybe go into production as a movie. The only question is which one is going to be next in the pipeline? #TheMandalorianAndGroguAStarWarsStory and #Bluey’s movie are already in post-production and pre-production for theatrical releases in 2026 and 2027. Marvel Studios’ #ArmorWars is also still being written for theatrical release after The Multiverse Saga ends (at least for now). So, what’s next? It won’t be #Tiana. But what could be next? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
I think the leadership has changed such that there isn’t a ton of things to pluck anymore that didn’t overtly have theatrical potential all along. In the sense I doubt we’ll see them approve a Coco series to later push it theatrically, they’ll just start theatrical and work backwards.
But I think we’ll generally stop seeing so many made for streaming movies out of Disney. Alien: Romulus was also a good pivot, but Haunted Mansion was not. One or two future live action D+ bound remakes that are hard to say if they’ve stalled out would be ok candidates. Maybe Hocus Pocus 3 for a specialty type run.
As for existing TV characters making the big screen jump, probably Ahsoka given the political will and who is In charge now. Thrawn has enough potential to bring back the whole crew (maybe even luke) for an Avengers style getting the gang together.
DisneyWarrior27
Active Member
That might hinge on how The Mandalorian and Grogu does at the box office with a budget of $120-$166M and the type of reviews it gets.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
Female led movies have been the foundation of the Disney company since the beginning. Disney has been know for Princess movies since the 1930s, and they began transitioning into more diverse leads nearly 40 years ago with Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, Lilo, etc.
I think all this shows is good stories still sell, give us a good story and no one cares if the lead is male/female, white/black/asian/etc… the story is all that really matters.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
That’s a super lean theatrical budget for Disney. Honestly, I have good feelings knowing that. If they can play in that budgetary wheelhouse, I feel like Filoni/Favreau is getting a free pass to run wild with the deeper cuts.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
There has been a notable pivot in the ceiling on some of these movies. Female audience appealing movies, family movies, musicals have been breaking through those assumed barriers as we are simultaneously seeing a significant pull back on male orientated action films performance. Gladiator 2, Fall Guy, Transformers 1, Furiosa, Joker 2 were pretty notable misses that used to be sure things. Ya, some was quality, but some wasn’t.
Barbie wasn’t a fluke though. Of course Disney is exceptionally well positioned to take advantage of that. One area I’ve noted a huge shift in the last 25 years is books. The fantasy genre is absolutely not a male-centric genre anymore. We’re going to see those trends eventually catch up to other media.
But on the variety front, I’d love to see another Prince Musical out of Disney. I guess we sort of had Coco from Pixar. But the next original fairytale really needs to be a Prince.
Ghost93
Well-Known Member
In the MCU's early days they gave their projects to directors with a little bit more experience (Kenneth Branaugh, Jon Favreau, Joe Johnston, Joss Wedon, etc.). But that was when the MCU was still establishing its identity.
I think they purposely pick relatively newbie directors, or directors who have only done small projects so that they can more easily control them. They don't want the director's vision to clash with Kevin Feige's overall vision for the MCU. Unfortunately, this can often lead to bland filmmaking.
I think Ryan Coogler, Chloe Zhao, Sam Rami and James Gunn managed to leave enough of their trademark styles on the MCU movies they made (regardless of whether the end result was great or not), but many MCU projects feel like they have no unique artistic stamp on them.