Pixar failure reveals that Disney is having difficulty recreating magic – 06/23/2023 – Market

In 2019, Walt Disney released seven films that grossed more than $1 billion each at the box office. It was a remarkable feat, made possible by Bob Iger’s series of studio acquisitions during his first 15-year tenure as chief executive.

Disney’s movie studios were “on fire,” said Jessica Reif Ehrlich, an analyst at Bank of America. “Bob came up with a Disney-branded movie strategy, and for ten years or more, no other studio could compete with them.”

Now, though, Iger is being asked about the possibility that the creative spark is starting to falter at Disney Studios, including box office powerhouses Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm.

“The creative engines are just not working well,” commented Rich Greenfield of LightShed Partners, an investment research group. “And as far as the movie industry is concerned, the problem is that there is no immediate solution to this.”

Pixar’s disappointing box-office record last weekend – a story of forbidden love between characters made of water and fire – crystallized the impression that the Disney studios had fallen into a rut.

“Elements” was well received by critics and audiences alike, but it took less than $30 million at the US box office in its opening weekend – disappointing for a film with an estimated budget of $200 million. That lackluster performance set off alarm bells, especially after the disappointing results last year of “Lightyear,” a prequel to “Toy Story” that drew just a quarter of the box office of previous work in the franchise.

Ehrlich said, “It’s been a while since there’s been something like ‘Toy Story,’ something extraordinary that’s original and really moves everyone.”

Bob Iger was retired, but was recalled in November to help get the company back on track after his successor, Bob Chapek, was forced out due to a dispute with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and losses that piled up in its streaming business.

Iger restructured the company to devolve power to creative executives, and last week Disney announced release dates for a slew of films, including those in the “Avatar” and “Star Wars” franchises.

But with less than 18 months left on Iger’s two-year contract, Greenfield questions whether he has enough time to revive the Disney magic.

“Everything at Disney flows from its creative excellence, whether it’s the theme parks, consumer products or even Disney Plus,” he commented. “More than any other company, Disney is tied to its creative output, and that output is simply not performing well. And it’s not clear why.”

Company executives acknowledged that “Elemental’s” box office was disappointing, but dismissed the idea that Disney was experiencing a creative crisis. They drew attention to the strong performance this spring of the live-action version of “The Little Mermaid” and said they have high hopes for upcoming films, including “Indiana Jones and the Hallows of Destiny”, “The Marvels” and “Wish: The Power of Wishing”. And they added that Marvel movies continue to attract large audiences.

But “Elements”‘ box office draw drew unfavorable comparisons with recent animated films released by Universal’s co-owned Illumination studio. “Super Mario Bros: The Movie,” released on April 5, has grossed $1.3 billion worldwide, and “Minions 2: Rise of Gru” — both from Illumination—has grossed $940 million since its debut. last year.

Pixar is led by Pete Docter, an Oscar-winning animator who founded the company in 1990. He said Pixar is working on a slew of sequels, including “Toy Story 5” and a sequel to “Inside Out.”

Inside and outside Disney there is a view that some key brands, notably Marvel but also Star Wars and Pixar, have been over-pressured to power the company’s streaming service, Disney Plus. During the pandemic, three Pixar features were released directly on Disney Plus, something that was not well received by professionals at the company, for whom it conditioned audiences to think that their films do not need to be seen in a theater.

“The question is to what extent this is overuse,” Greenfield theorized. “Are they trying to push everything on Disney Plus by force, with one series? Did they go too far with Marvel and Lucasfilm, diluting the power of film franchises by introducing all these movies to streaming?”

After Disney acquired Marvel in 2009, it created franchises that have spawned dozens of movies and grossed tens of billions of dollars, making it the biggest hit-making machine in Hollywood. Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame,” released in 2019, earned a staggering $2.8 billion, the second-highest box office in movie history.

But Marvel’s most recent performance has been marked by ups and downs. There were two hits: “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever After”, and a flop, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”.

Earlier this year, Bob Iger said “there’s nothing inherently wrong in terms of the Marvel brand”, but suggested that Disney needs to be more prudent with sequels.

“What we have to consider with Marvel is not necessarily the volume of their narrative, but how many times we go back to the origin of certain characters,” he said at a media conference in March. “Sequels usually work well for us. But is there a need for a third or fourth film?”

The same thing applies to the “Star Wars” films, which are under the supervision of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Iger said, “We’re still developing ‘Star Wars’ movies. We’re going to make sure that when we make one, it’s the right one. So we’re tread very carefully.”

For Greenfield, the question is whether the public is prepared to see Disney diversify in new directions, rather than relying on its admittedly valuable catalog of intellectual property.

“If you look back over the last 10 years and Bob Iger’s entire first tenure at the helm, the improvement and growth of the franchises each year has been incredible,” he said. “I think the question now is: have they been drinking from this source too many times and it’s been too much? Is it a case of creating new intellectual property?”

Translated by Clara Allain