Hugh Jackman, Robert Egger and Ryan Reynolds attend the world premiere of Marvel Studios’ “Deadpool and Wolverine” at the David H. Koch Theater on July 22, 2024 in New York City.
Christina Benfrey | Variety | Getty Images
After years of ups and downs at the box office, disney 2024 seems to be the year to hit the sweet spot.
Its latest Pixar film, “Inside Out,” is now the highest-grossing animated film of all time, with global box office sales exceeding $1.5 billion. Its first R-rated Marvel Cinematic Universe film, “Deadpool and Wolverine,” broke the opening weekend box office record for an R-rated movie and is expected to cross the $1 billion mark before the end of its run.
Box office revenue isn’t expected to stop there.
During the Thanksgiving holiday, the studio will release Moana 2, the highly anticipated sequel to 2016’s Moana. While the first film grossed just under $700 million worldwide, audience enthusiasm for more Moana content is expected to drive high box office numbers in November. After all, it’s the most-streamed movie of 2023.
Disney’s animated series have been successful this year, with Inside Out 2’s box office revenue nearly doubling its predecessor’s $850 million in 2015.
“This billion-dollar club, while becoming less and less exclusive every year, is a remarkable achievement for any film to join its ranks, especially when a studio has the potential to bring a film to theaters in the U.S. Come three wins in a row. “It’s an enviable position, with Disney returning to glory after a post-pandemic hiatus. They’re in the midst of a remarkable renaissance year for the studio. “
One big unknown for the studio is December’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” a prequel to 2019’s “The Lion King.” While its predecessor grossed $1.6 billion worldwide, with more than $1.1 billion coming from international audiences, it’s unclear how interested moviegoers will be in this realistically animated sequel.
Disney has long been a box-office champion, driving ticket sales domestically and globally. While its theater business accounts for a relatively small portion of its total annual revenue, it’s an important part of Disney’s broader strategy. The company has applied its theater success in many other departments. Movie franchises such as Star Wars, Marvel, Avatar and Pixar have transcended the big screen and become popular theme parks and television shows, with characters from these films appearing on merchandise.
Disney’s recent box office performance comes at a time when its theme parks are growing rapidly and generating enough revenue to balance other businesses that are less successful or still in the process of making money, such as streaming platform Disney+. In the most recent quarter, however, Disney Parks and Experiences felt the pinch due to lower consumer demand and inflation.
Getting the theater business back to normal is crucial for Disney because it can drive growth in other areas of the business.
Billion dollar track record
Disney has produced more billion-dollar hits than any company in the industry. Comscore data shows that of the 53 films that achieved this box office performance, more than half (27) were owned by Disney.
Two of the films – 2009’s “Avatar” and 1997’s “Titanic” – were produced by 21st Century Fox before the two companies merged in 2019, but are believed to be worth billions to Disney Part of the Dollar Film Series. In addition, the two Spider-Man movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe co-produced by Disney and Sony also exceeded $1 billion at the box office. However, these are not included in Disney’s revenue because they are distributed by Sony.
In the year before the pandemic, seven Disney movies had a box office of over $1 billion. However, theater closures and production shutdowns, coupled with a spread of creative teams, have contributed to the company’s film business slumping in recent years.
Audiences and critics lamented Disney’s pursuit of quantity at the expense of quality in major franchises. The company has also been criticized for allowing some of its content to focus too much on social messaging.
While Avatar: Waterfall becomes one of the highest-grossing movies of 2022 and multiple Marvel movies have grossed more than $800 million worldwide, Disney is also seeing some An animated feature has the lowest box office in decades and the MCU has the lowest distribution.
“There’s been a lot of talk about some of Disney’s box office underperformance in recent years, but it was always foolish to count on The Walt Disney Company to be out in the long term,” said Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory. Their leadership has made clear and compelling strategic moves to address the commercial woes of several critical releases in the pandemic era… We are starting to see the early dividends of a return to premium franchise content and a renewed emphasis on the moviegoing experience .
Since returning to the helm of Disney in late 2022, Disney CEO Bob Iger has repeatedly spoken about the company’s theater woes.
He acknowledged that there were many reasons for Disney’s fall from grace in the theater world. He said the company had audiences expecting its movies to stream during the coronavirus lockdown, and pandemic-related restrictions made it difficult for executives to oversee its increased number of film and television productions. Additionally, he said the company’s efforts to provide new content for Disney+ have diluted its quality.
Iger promised investors that Disney’s creativity would turn things around. He appears to be delivering on that promise.
On Wednesday, he attributed the company’s recent quarter’s stellar performance in its content sales and licensing divisions to “Inside Out 2.” The company noted that since the first trailer for “Inside Out 2” was released last November, the first “Inside Out” has attracted more than 1.3 million sign-ups on Disney+ and generated more than 100 million views globally.
He also touted a slew of franchise features the company will roll out over the next few years.
“Let me read you through the movies that we will be making and releasing over the next nearly two years,” Iger said on Wednesday’s earnings call. “We have Moana, Mufasa, Captain America, Snow White, Days of Thunder, Fantastic Four, Zootopia, Avatar, The Avengers. , “The Mandalorian” and “Toy Story” to name a few, and when you consider not just the box office potential but the potential to drive global streaming value, I think there’s reason to be bullish on where we’re headed. “
Upcoming Disney Movies
2024
- “Alien: Romulus”
- “Moana 2”
- “Mufasa: The Lion King”
2025
- “Captain America: Brave New World”
- “snow White”
- “Thunder*”
- “Fantastic Four: The First Step”
- “Tron: Ares”
- “Blade”
- “Animal City 2”
- “Avatar 3”
2026
- “Avengers: Doomsday”
- “The Mandalorian and Grogu”
- “Toy Story 5”
- “Moana”
- Untitled “Star Wars”
2027
- “Avengers: Secret Wars”
- Untitled “Star Wars”
- “Avatar 4”
Investors are expected to get a closer look at Disney’s theater plans at this weekend’s biennial D23 expo in Anaheim, California.
“The past has been self-evident, but there is no doubt about the importance of Disney’s role in the present and future of the industry,” Robbins said. “If Marvel and Pixar continue to turn a profit, if Star Wars ” series can eventually achieve a similar rebound under Lucasfilm, it won’t be long before the parent company returns to some familiar box office strength every year.”
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