Walt Disney
movies have lost their magic, and it’s showing at the box office.
Disney
(ticker: DIS) has been making movies for 100 years. In that century, the entertainment company has created some of the most iconic movies of all time, from old school films like Cinderella to more recent releases like Frozen.
But the excitement surrounding new
Disney
movies is not the same as it once was. Disney’s latest film,The Marvels, brought in $47 million domestically in its opening weekend, which was below estimates of around $75 million to $80 million. That’s also sharply lower than the $153.4 million its predecessor Captain Marvel brought in domestically in its opening weekend in 2019.
“The long feared superhero fatigue seems to be setting in with Marvel,” Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett said in an interview with Barron’s Monday
And while The Marvels was the lowest opening weekend box office in Marvel history, it is not Disney’s first box office performance to come in lower than before the pandemic.
In 2019, the top five performing movies at the global box office were all Disney films, with Avengers: Endgame scoring overall worldwide results of $2.8 billion, according to Box Office Mojo. In 2023, of the top five global box office performers, only No. 4, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, has been a Disney film, with global results of $949 million.
“When you see another misfire like this you start to wonder: Is the magic gone?” Crockett said. Crockett did add that other factors could have played into this weekend’s results, including the actor’s strike that prevented stars from promoting the film and the idea that there is now too much Disney content being pumped out.
Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. However, Chief Executive Bob Iger has acknowledged problems in the past. He said in an interview with CNBC in July that in the company’s attempt to grow content, “we ended up taxing our people way beyond—in terms of their time and their focus—way beyond where they had been.” He added that the increase in Marvel films and TV shows “diluted focus and attention.”
It isn’t just Disney releasing movies with lighter box office results than the past. The top performing movie of 2023 was Barbie, which made $1.44 billion worldwide. That’s less than the third highest performer in 2019, Frozen II, at $1.45 billion. Crockett said that there are a few reasons for the current difficult movie environment as people have access to more content than ever at home and as inflation remains at historically high levels.
“This is a very discretionary spend, and probably the bar is a little bit higher for people,” Crockett said. “Do they want to spend on a movie ticket and overpriced popcorn given how much more expensive the essentials are?”
And while Disney movies miss the mark, the company and investors remain focused on the future of its TV assets. Iger has previously said that Disney would consider the sale of certain TV assets, which could include channels like ABC. The Wall Street Journal also reported last week that the company is exploring the possibility of putting some of its TV networks into its joint venture with Hearst.
The company has also announced plans to expand investments in its Disney Parks Experiences and Products segment over the course of about 10 years to about $60 billion, and has recently raised prices for its theme parks and streaming service Disney+ amid high operating costs.
Looking ahead, Disney is set to release it’s latest animated film Wish on Nov 22.
“I think they kind of ‘wish’ for a much better box office there later in November than they just had with Marvel,” Crockett said. “If that movie works, it could go a long way to right some of the concerns that we’re seeing today.”
Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]
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