Disney loses $900 million and its CEO says he is ashamed
Disney closes its centenary with $900 million in 2023 losses: Indiana Jones and Haunted Mansion flop and a worn-down Bob Iger
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Disney turns 100 with $900 million in losses
October 16 marks exactly a century since Walt Disney and his brother Roy founded a small animation company in Los Angeles. A hundred years later, that workshop is Hollywood's most influential studio, owner of franchises that generate billions and a catalog fattened by absorbing competitors. The birthday, however, arrives with its books in the red: $900 million in losses so far in 2023. And with a CEO, Bob Iger, who according to Bloomberg feels “ashamed and exhausted.”
Iger ran the company for nearly two decades, its most splendid, handed control to Bob Chapek just before the cobi19 and returned to “save the company.” The box office of recent releases and falling attendance at theme parks tell a different story.
The releases that explain the box-office hole
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny cost $300 million and grossed $383 million worldwide. With that budget, the result could only be read as a disappointment. The live-action remake of The Little Mermaid fared similarly: insufficient box office once set beside its astronomical budget. And Haunted Mansion bombed outright, $150 million cost against $115 million worldwide gross.
The exception has a name. Elemental was also expensive and its opening weekend was pitiful, to the point that many predicted Pixar's great failure. It later recovered to a satisfactory box office. The lesson is uncomfortable for those who pass judgment on Sunday: opening weekend is not a film's destiny.
Marvel: from Guardians' triumph to The Marvels fatigue
Leaving aside the mediocre reception of Secret Invasion, Marvel is not facing a catastrophe. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania posted a good box office even if it wasn't as well liked as other installments, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was an unqualified triumph. But the fatigue is palpable and The Marvels, arriving on November 9, carries that burden: the franchise appears to have entered decline.
Beneath the numbers is a cost problem. When a budget soars, a box office that would once have passed as reasonable becomes an accounting hole. A full, line-by-line analysis of the collapse paints a far less flattering picture than that of a simple bad weekend.
Wish and animation: the centenary's last shot
Wish, which opens on November 24, was conceived precisely to celebrate the 100th anniversary. It has built hype through trailer views on YouTube, something that isn't happening with the Marvel Studios film.
The animation context is hardly party-ready. Lightyear, Pixar's previous film, posted weak numbers, and Strange World, from Walt Disney Animation, closed 2022 as the biggest flop in that division's history. Wish may right the ship, but there isn't much festive spirit.
The standoff with Ron DeSantis and the “go proge, go broke” label
Add a political front to the equation. The company locked horns with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the law known as “Don't Say Lgtb,” a clash it presented as a defense of its employees and that the other side sees as an unpaid bill.
Here the rift opens. Some argue that consumers are punishing years of message-driven content and characters built by quota, and sum it up in a slogan that is everywhere: go proge, go broke. On the other side weighs a more prosaic argument: audiences have never stopped paying for good scripts, and a product no one is interested in isn't fixed by changing its rhetoric, but by writing better.
Where the diagnosis gets stuck
The century of history is not in question. The model is. A studio that buys franchises, churns out remakes and entrusts production to an assembly line doesn't have to go bankrupt, but it doesn't have to get it right either. The names that built the business — Walt and Roy at the beginning, Michael Eisner in the nineties, Steve Jobs and John Lasseter at Pixar, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at Marvel, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on Indiana Jones — had something you can't buy at a shareholders' meeting.
With $900 million in losses, a CEO who says he is exhausted and two expensive releases ahead, the question is no longer whether the company survives: it will. It is whether anyone at the top knows what it wants to sell and to whom. On October 16 there will be cake, candles and a family photo. What doesn't appear on the balance sheet is a plan. That's exactly where the analysis gets stuck.
October 16 marks exactly a century since Walt Disney and his brother Roy founded a small animation company in Los Angeles. A hundred years later, that workshop is Hollywood's most influential studio, owner of franchises that generate billions and a catalog fattened by absorbing competitors. The birthday, however, arrives with its books in the red: $900 million in losses so far in 2023. And with a CEO, Bob Iger, who according to Bloomberg feels “ashamed and exhausted.”
Iger ran the company for nearly two decades, its most splendid, handed control to Bob Chapek just before the cobi19 and returned to “save the company.” The box office of recent releases and falling attendance at theme parks tell a different story.
The releases that explain the box-office hole
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny cost $300 million and grossed $383 million worldwide. With that budget, the result could only be read as a disappointment. The live-action remake of The Little Mermaid fared similarly: insufficient box office once set beside its astronomical budget. And Haunted Mansion bombed outright, $150 million cost against $115 million worldwide gross.
The exception has a name. Elemental was also expensive and its opening weekend was pitiful, to the point that many predicted Pixar's great failure. It later recovered to a satisfactory box office. The lesson is uncomfortable for those who pass judgment on Sunday: opening weekend is not a film's destiny.
Marvel: from Guardians' triumph to The Marvels fatigue
Leaving aside the mediocre reception of Secret Invasion, Marvel is not facing a catastrophe. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania posted a good box office even if it wasn't as well liked as other installments, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was an unqualified triumph. But the fatigue is palpable and The Marvels, arriving on November 9, carries that burden: the franchise appears to have entered decline.
Beneath the numbers is a cost problem. When a budget soars, a box office that would once have passed as reasonable becomes an accounting hole. A full, line-by-line analysis of the collapse paints a far less flattering picture than that of a simple bad weekend.
Wish and animation: the centenary's last shot
Wish, which opens on November 24, was conceived precisely to celebrate the 100th anniversary. It has built hype through trailer views on YouTube, something that isn't happening with the Marvel Studios film.
The animation context is hardly party-ready. Lightyear, Pixar's previous film, posted weak numbers, and Strange World, from Walt Disney Animation, closed 2022 as the biggest flop in that division's history. Wish may right the ship, but there isn't much festive spirit.
The standoff with Ron DeSantis and the “go proge, go broke” label
Add a political front to the equation. The company locked horns with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the law known as “Don't Say Lgtb,” a clash it presented as a defense of its employees and that the other side sees as an unpaid bill.
Here the rift opens. Some argue that consumers are punishing years of message-driven content and characters built by quota, and sum it up in a slogan that is everywhere: go proge, go broke. On the other side weighs a more prosaic argument: audiences have never stopped paying for good scripts, and a product no one is interested in isn't fixed by changing its rhetoric, but by writing better.
Where the diagnosis gets stuck
The century of history is not in question. The model is. A studio that buys franchises, churns out remakes and entrusts production to an assembly line doesn't have to go bankrupt, but it doesn't have to get it right either. The names that built the business — Walt and Roy at the beginning, Michael Eisner in the nineties, Steve Jobs and John Lasseter at Pixar, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at Marvel, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on Indiana Jones — had something you can't buy at a shareholders' meeting.
With $900 million in losses, a CEO who says he is exhausted and two expensive releases ahead, the question is no longer whether the company survives: it will. It is whether anyone at the top knows what it wants to sell and to whom. On October 16 there will be cake, candles and a family photo. What doesn't appear on the balance sheet is a plan. That's exactly where the analysis gets stuck.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (288 replies).
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