Movie Budget Gross
- Home on the Range | 110 Million | 104 Million
- Treasure Planet | 140 Million | 109 Million
- Country Bears | 38 Million | 18 Million
- Mars Needs Moms | 150 Million | 39 Million (Jesus)
- Dinosaur | 128 Million | 350 Million (wasn't expecting that)
- Brother Bear | 46 Million | 250 Million
- Lilo & Stitch | 80 Million | 273 Million
- Atlantis Lost Emp. | 120 Million | 186 Million
Some of those aren't too bad, but when compared to the Disney Renaissance period, it's a lot weaker. Here's a look at the original animated movies of that period.
Movie Budget Gross
- Beauty and the Beast | 25 Million | 440 Million
- Aladdin | 28 Million | 504 Million
- Lion King | 45 Million | Pretty much a Billion
- Pocahontas | 55 Million | 350 Million
- The Hunchback | 100 Million | 326 Million
- Mulan | 90 Million | 305 Million
Lion King alone pretty much gave Disney enough money to make terrible movies for a decade and not be too worried. But you can see the huge difference not only in the quality of the movies but the amount of money coming in from them. There were more flops in the 2000s and not a lot of big hits to make up for those flops. And that's not including a lot of the live-action flops around that time like "Around the world in 90 Days" and "John Carter". Although they did have the massive Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Also around this time were a couple of other failed launches in their entertainment/parks side with the disappointing launch of California Adventure next to Disneyland and the closure of Club Disney. But that was just a bump on the road to becoming the biggest studio in the entire world that would make billions and billions of dollars every year in the parks, merchandise, and movie business.
With the acquisition of Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, Fox, Pixar, and every child's soul, Disney has now become a juggernaut in the industry. It's an unstoppable force of money so strong that no one can dare to even try to stop it, lest they be swallowed by the black hole that is every franchise they ever loved. Because that's exactly what they're using to draw you in, your nostalgia. The past few years Disney has been chugging out sequel after sequel and remake after remake of all your beloved childhood favorites. Seriously, looking through the list of movies they've released the past few years, it's mostly been either a remake or a sequel of a big franchise. Here's another list of theatrical movies released the past few years (not including Lucasfilm and Marvel, those are all part of one franchise anyway):
2020:
Artemis Fowl (original), though was moved to Disney+ for COVID reasons
Onward (original) Also moved to Disney+ for COVID
2019:
Frozen II (Sequel)
Maleficent II (sequel)
Lion King (Remake)
Toy Story 4 (Sequel)
Aladdin (Remake)
Dumbo (Remake)
2018:
Mary Poppins Returns (Sequel / Reboot)
Ralph Breaks the Internet (sequel)
Nutcracker and the Four Realms (original?)
Christopher Robin (Sequel/reboot)
Incredibles 2 (sequel)
Wrinkle in Time (Remake/Reboot)
2017:
Coco (original)
Cars 3 (sequel)
Pirates of the Caribbean 5 (sequel)
Beauty and the Beast (remake)
14/18 movies there are either sequels or remakes of some kind. And the few originals made there were not very good movies. Really the only good original in the past few years has been Coco.
Most of the remakes being made aren't better than the originals anyway, but they sure make as much money as they did back then (usually more). That combined with the massive amounts of money from the Marvel and Star Wars movies allowed them to buy one of the other largest studios in the world in Fox. Pretty much giving Disney a stranglehold in Hollywood and also giving them majority share in the big streaming service Hulu along with their own Disney+ service they released recently. You think with all this money they could try more new things not only in the film world but in their own theme parks and treat their employees better. In 2019, Disney held around 38% of the market share of all the leading film studios, the closest competitor was Warner Bros at around 14%. That is insane. What's even more insane is that they only released 13 movies in 2019 to get that number while Warner Bros released 43 movies to get their 14%.
"No one man should have all that power". But I guess it's pretty easy when all you're really doing in re-releasing everyone's childhood memories knowing they'll go and watch it with their kids now. Because it seems that whenever they try something a little different and new it doesn't go so well. Which for Disney means not making a billion dollars at the box office. And even though I love the Marvel movies, I think it would be nice for them to take a little break, let me get excited to see more of them later on. But that's not about to stop anytime soon, especially with all the new characters they acquired with the Fox deal. Here's hoping they don't also get Spider-Man from Sony (probably not the majority opinion). It's bad enough they got the other biggest selling movie in the world James Cameron's Avatar and it's 50 upcoming sequels.
I'm honestly not sure what I'm even trying to say here. I guess it's that I see this company and all the power it has and it kind of worries me a little. Now that they own even more beloved franchises from the Fox deal, are they gonna start remaking and rebooting all of those as well? Are they gonna keep supporting the smaller filmmakers with the Fox Searchlight projects? Will they use their massive amounts of money to actually try to make big original ideas from great filmmakers young and old? Or will they keep hiring the big up and comers for their remakes and big franchise sequels? I just hope they stop relying so much on the past and actually start to invest in new ideas from great creators. And please don't let them buy another major studio. PLEASE.
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