Disney CEO Speaks On The Underperformance Of Recent Films
The latest Disney releases have seemingly not met the standards of the past, with questions of quality, passion and originality circulating their recent product. These issues have been represented in the underperformance of The Mandalorian and Grogu and the live-action remake of Moana at the box office.
This instalment in the Star Wars franchise had a budget of $166 million, with funding financed by the California Film and Television Tax Credits program. Opening in the last weekend of May, The Mandalorian and Grogu made a mere $81 million at the domestic box office – which is recorded as the lowest for a big-screen Star Wars cinematic release. The budget was on the smaller side for a Disney production; however, their aim of profit still sat around the $500 million mark meaning its ultimate earnings of $345 million is an unmistakable shortfall.
The live-action Moana unfortunately followed a similar story of disappointment, as despite pushed marketing it only earned $262 million worldwide. This only tightly cuts across a margin of profit, costing around $250 million to produce. This film has not reflected on its original too gracefully, as it has faced criticism for being an exact retelling that does not invite new audiences for an even slightly new story.
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Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro had to concur that they underperformed in terms of box office revenue, but defends their success in areas such as merchandise sales, and their projected future as part of the Disney production hall of fame. In an interview, D’Amaro spoke on the matter: “When our franchise films don’t meet our box office expectations, as with The Mandalorian and Grogu and the live-action Moana, Our investments in these core properties fuel other parts of our company. The Mandalorian and Grogu drove healthy growth in retail sales for the Star Wars franchise and drew guests to the updated Millennium Falcon attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and led to significant engagement in gaming as well. The live-actionMoana is expected to be a strong title on Disney+, building on the success of the original film, which is one of the most-streamed movies of all time. These franchise investments contributed to value creation beyond their theatrical releases.”
Hugh Johnston, Disney CFO, follows suit, pushing the discourse away from poor box office statistics to the success of building the name up continuously. He says: “Theatrical performance is important to us, of course, and we certainly aspire to deliver consistent financial results for our films. But the nature of the film industry is such that it is more of a portfolio game. The good news for us is our diversified business helps us basically cover the volatility that comes out of the film business… the theatrical window in a lot of ways is just one data point, and the real value of that IP is the cumulative benefit of decades-long storytelling and our ability to take that IP and lay it into the entirety of the Disney flywheel.”
This comes alongside promotion of a collaboration between TikTok and Disney+, whereby short-form content will appear on the streaming app and feature characters and stories to expand the horizon of the Disney brand. This does call into question the future integrity of Disney work; however, it opens a new avenue for content creators.
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