2023 was supposed to be a big year for Disney, marking the studio’s 100th anniversary. However, it is unfortunate that Disney did not meet expectations (even disappointed) with a disastrous year at the box office. Of Disney’s 8 major theatrical releases this year, 7 films performed poorly in the North American market in particular and in the international market in general.
Let’s look back at a difficult year for “movie tycoon” Disney with VTV News:
Superhero decline
(Photo: Marvel Studios/Disney)
It cannot be denied that one of the most famous film franchises in the 21st century is Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. From Iron Man by 2008, the superhero category was drawing tens of millions of Americans to theaters each year. However, in 2023, two out of three Marvel movies released had a bad ending.
The first failure was in February with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Despite a star-studded cast including Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer and Bill Murray, the big-budget $200 million film only earned $215 million in North America and $476 million globally, far behind its predecessor. the $600 million it needs to break even.
The second failure is The Marvels in February. That compares to the first part’s whopping $1.1 billion Captain Marvel in 2019, The Marvels was expected to become a box office blockbuster in 2023. However, in the end the film only opened with 46 million USD and about 200 million USD in total revenue. This causes The Marvels became the lowest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The failure of reboots
In 2023, audiences seem to be fed up with “recycled” Hollywood movies, including products from Disney.
Specifically, despite being extremely heavily promoted and considered Disney’s “trump card”,… The Little Mermaid still failed miserably when released in May. The film only brought in 297 million USD in North America and 267 million USD in the international market. Meanwhile, the film has an extremely large budget, up to 250 million USD. Compare with the 2019 live-action release of The Lion King and the figure of 1.6 billion USD in revenue, The Little Mermaid completely outmatched and subjected to criticism from audiences around the world.
The following month, Disney released it Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny with Harrison Ford. However, despite high expectations, the film only grossed 174 million USD in the domestic market and less than 400 million USD worldwide. This makes it impossible for the studio to recover the nearly $300 million budget for the project, not including promotional costs.
Disney closes out the summer with a reboot of Haunted Mansion, However, it only brought in a mere 117 million USD in global revenue. This is a huge failure when the film has the participation of famous stars such as Tiffany Haddish, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto.
Cartoons struggled at the box office
Disney has created a series of classic animated films that are loved by many generations, such as Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story… However, 2023 marks a decline for Disney as the company struggles with its latest animated films.
In June, Elemental only brought in nearly 500 million USD in revenue worldwide. This number is nothing in comparison Inside Out Launched in 2015 with 860 million USD in revenue. Even, Inside Out cost only $175 million to produce, meanwhile Elemental again cost Disney 200 million USD.
Faced with a series of reports that the film had failed, Disney countered in August: “The film directed by Peter Sohn surpassed the $400 million mark last week. Of that, the film earned $148 million domestically.” , this number is about 5 times the opening weekend revenue in North America. This is a rare achievement in the box office world where most audiences buy tickets on the opening weekend.”
Final, Wish was released before Thanksgiving, promoted by Disney as a “century-shaping” film to celebrate the studio’s 100th anniversary. Who is sad, Wish brought in just over 125 million USD worldwide, facing huge losses. Comparisons to Disney’s pre-Thanksgiving 2021 movie are Encantothe film has earned more than 250 million USD amid the post-COVID-19 movie landscape.
Disney’s gloom is expected to continue into next year due to production changes, the result of a long strike by Hollywood writers and actors. Inside Out 2 and Deadpool 3 is still coming out next year, but the live-action version Snow White has been pushed back to 2025.
