Disney Is Dying At The Box Office And It’s Getting Worse
This summer has seen the arrival of a handful of highly-anticipated titles coming from Walt Disney Studios. From action and adventure to animated features, the House of Mouse has given audiences a slew of new content in just the last month alone. Unfortunately, Variety reports that for Disney, the numbers are in and things aren’t looking so great at the box office.
While during the tail end of last year, Disney dropped money-making projects like Avatar: The Way of Water and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the box office steam hasn’t quite picked up in the new year.
Things have seemingly been on the up and up for the company that’s never been on the down and down (we tried) but Disney may need to do an entire revamp sometime soon if their performance at the box office continues in the downward slump that it’s fallen into during 2023.
Taking over Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm seemed like a big paycheck for the studio but when it comes to the fans, things haven’t been hitting like they used to.
As of right now, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has only managed to wrangle in $82 million, and now that the opening weekend hype is over, the chances of cutting even seem slim.
While during the tail end of last year, Disney dropped money-making projects like Avatar: The Way of Water and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the box office steam hasn’t quite picked up in the new year. First, there was the blunder of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the bookend to the Ant-Man trilogy, and the kick-off for Marvel’s Phase 5.
What should have been a top grosser fell flat with audiences not turning out like Disney had anticipated.
This summer has seen the premiere of Disney’s latest live-action feature, The Little Mermaid, a title that, while staying afloat at the box office, isn’t hitting the projected numbers expected by the House of Mouse. And then there’s the fifth and final installment in the Harrison Ford-led Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
After the massive failure that was 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, fans may have been a bit surprised to know that the studio was moving forward with another chapter in the life of the adventurous archaeologist.
With a promising cast that included Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen, it seemed that Disney was on track for a box office smash. After pouring somewhere around $300 million into the production, Disney is staring down a huge loss with audiences not as keen as expected on seeing Indy’s latest adventure.
As of right now, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has only managed to wrangle in $82 million, and now that the opening weekend hype is over, the chances of cutting even seem slim.
The last title (so far) in Disney’s summer of box office flops is Pixar’s Elemental. It’s been a full year since the studio dropped its last project, Lightyear, with a certainty that its dedicated fandom would be packing theaters to see another cute story about the ways that our differences make us stronger.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case for Elemental’s ticket sales, casting an unsure shadow on upcoming releases like Elio and Inside Out 2.
Disney’s Last Hope For 2023
Although the studio’s biggest hit of the year, Guardians of the GalaxyVol. 3, was a huge earner, it can’t make up for the buckets of cash the company is continuing to lose with its recently released titles.
Their final hope lies with the star-studded cast of Haunted Mansion which will scare its way into theaters on July 28. Only time will tell if the legendary studio can get back on its feet before 2024 rolls around.
