Disney Suffers Another Humiliating Box Office Disaster
Disney can’t seem to catch a break at the box office with its last title of 2023, the animated feature Wish. Marking a new low for the movie, it just managed to break even with its production budget. For reference, Wish came out almost two full months ago in late November.
This is undoubtedly a huge blow to the House of Mouse as not only was Wish its cap on the year but also the final film to roll out as part of its 100th-anniversary celebrations. During its opening weekend over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Disney title managed to only wrangle an abysmal $31.7 million at the box office. Since then, more viewers turned out to catch it in cinemas around the world, finally helping it hit $223 million globally, with a bleak domestic accumulation of $63 million.
Disney dropped its vibrant and musical production alongside other money-makers, including The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Napoleon, Trolls Band Together, and Thanksgiving, with Wish coming in third place at the box office. While the five-day holiday weekend is typically an easy grab for family-friendly films to see sky-high numbers, more folks were interested in seeing teenagers fight to the death in the Hunger Games prequel and watch the life of the historical French general as told by Ridley Scott.
From there, Wish only faced more competition as it headed into December, with titles like Migration, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and Wonka cruising into theaters around the world. Between these three titles and others released over the last month, Wish had rough odds when it came to bringing in the younger theater-goers to the cinema. Such can be seen in the Disney title’s box office numbers as they steadily dropped off throughout December.
Aside from Wish, 2023 was an overall washout year for Disney at the box office. Despite taking charge of Marvel and Star Wars, two purchases that should’ve skyrocketed the studio’s earnings, the last year was a bumpy one for just about every project released. While Marvel flicks Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 managed to pay off, the same can’t be said for the final MCU film of the year, The Marvels, marking a devastating blow to the franchise.
And then there was the over-hyped Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, said to be the final installment in the beloved Harrison Ford-led franchise. While Disney built it up greatly, the box office numbers showed that maybe audiences are really over Indy’s adventures. Other titles like the Pixar and Disney production Elemental barely pulled itself from the bottom of the box office barrel while the star-studded revamped Haunted Mansion also didn’t nab the numbers the studio was hoping for.
Heading into 2024, Disney, like many other studios, is looking at a challenging few months as the writers’ and actors’ strikes slowed down productions. To make up for some of the missing funds, Disney is re-releasing a handful of animated features that never saw the big screen, including Soul, Turning Red, and Luca, to hopefully drive up box office earnings. Otherwise, audiences can expect to see titles such as Inside Out 2 and The Lion King: Mufasa coming later this year.
Source: Box Office Mojo
