2023 Review: Disney’s dismal year at the box office

December 24, 2023 06:30 AM

The Walt Disney Company had an incredibly underwhelming year in 2023, largely due in part to the performance of most of its films.

While other factors contributed to this underperformance in what was supposed to be a celebration of Disney’s 100-year anniversary, such as declining attendance at its theme parks, the company’s output of films this year ended up largely disappointing at the box office. The company was once known for raking in the dough in the 2010s, including releasing seven of the 10 highest-grossing 2019 films, but 2023 saw Disney release half a dozen movies that either performed below expectations or outright bombed, with billionaire Elon Musk joking online that Disney has released “more bombs than a B-52.”

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Here are all the movies that didn’t live up to expectations.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

The third Ant-Man movie, part of the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, initially started strong when it opened mid-February to over $106 million at the North American box office. However, ticket sales tanked afterward in its second weekend, grossing less than $32 million.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ended its box office run with over $214 million at the North American box office and over $476 million globally, making it the lowest-grossing film of the three Ant-Man movies. The first film, released in 2015, grossed over $519 million globally, while the second film from 2018 grossed over $622 million globally.

The Little Mermaid

The live-action remake of Disney’s classic 1989 animated film was expected to be a big moneymaker for Disney, as many of its other remakes had been, such as 2017’s remake of Beauty and the Beast and 2019’s remakes of Aladdin and The Lion King. But unlike those films, which made over $1 billion globally, Disney’s latest live-action outing ended its run with $569.6 million.

In October, it was revealed that the film had a budget of over $300 million, with Disney only getting to keep an estimated $284.8 million from The Little Mermaid’s final tally, as studios typically receive half of what a movie makes at the box office.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

The fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, and the first since 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, massively underperformed at the summer box office, opening to just over $60 million and ending its run with under $175 million at the North American box office. The film did not fare much better overseas, ending its run with just under $384 million.

Like The Little Mermaid remake, the budget of the latest Indiana Jones film was around $300 million, meaning the film needed to make around $600 million to break even and around $800 million to be considered successful.

Haunted Mansion

Based on an attraction at Disney’s theme parks, Haunted Mansion was another attempt by Disney to capitalize on movies based on its theme park rides, which boosted Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to massive financial success. However, Pirates of the Caribbean has shown to be the exception, not the norm, as Haunted Mansion was another flop with a global gross of around $117 million against a budget of $150 million.

The Marvels

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was not the only Marvel movie to underperform this year, with The Marvels ending its run with under $198 million globally. The 2023 film, a sequel to Captain Marvel, only made a fraction of what the original film made, which grossed over $1.1 billion in 2019.

Beyond flopping at the box office, the movie also became the lowest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which spans 33 films and a variety of television shows. Previously, the lowest-grossing film in the Marvel franchise was 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which grossed $264 million.

Wish

The latest animated production from Disney is still in theaters, but Disney is likely wishing the film was doing better financially, as the film has only grossed just over $83 million as of Dec. 5.

The film opened on Nov. 22 to $31.7 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, which included $19.5 million from Friday through Sunday. Original projections for the film had it opening to $35 million over the three-day weekend and $45 million to $50 million over the five-day holiday weekend.

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In November, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the company had been responsible for making too many sequels, and that going forward, Disney is only going to make a sequel to a film if the company believes “the story that the creators want to tell is worth telling.”

Next year’s lineup of films includes Deadpool 3, Inside Out 2, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel to the 2019 film.