Context is everything. When a movie comes out and grosses, let’s say, $345 million or $262 million worldwide, usually that’s good. It’s a lot of money. But when those movies are from franchises whose previous installments have made over $1 billion, $300 million or so starts to look much less impressive.
$345 million and $262 million, by the way, are the current global box office totals for Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu and the live-action remake of Moana, both of which were released by Disney this summer. Neither has lived up to box office expectations and, on a recent earnings call, Variety reported that Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro admitted as much. However, he explained that Disney movies can’t be judged solely on box office receipts.
“Even when our franchise films don’t meet our box office expectations, as with The Mandalorian and Grogu and the live-action Moana, our investments in these core properties fuel other parts of our company,” D’Amaro said.
He continued, “The Mandalorian and Grogu drove healthy growth in retail sales for the Star Wars franchise and drew guests to the updated Millennium Falcon attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and led to significant engagement in gaming as well,” D’Amaro said. “And the live-action Moana is expected to be a strong title on Disney+, building on the success of the original film, which is one of the most-streamed movies of all time.”
Oh, so you spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get people to ride a new ride and stream a film later in its lifecycle? Got it.
We kid, of course, but there is some truth here. Disney, almost more than any other movie studio, thrives on more than just movie tickets. You didn’t buy a ticket to Moana? That’s fine. As long as you spent $200 to walk into Disneyland, $40 on a Haunted Mansion popcorn bucket, and $10 on a hot dog. You can keep the $15 for a ticket.
“Theatrical performance is important to us, of course, and we certainly aspire to deliver consistent financial results for our films. But the nature of the film industry is such that it is more of a portfolio game,” Disney CFO Hugh Johnston added. “The good news for us is our diversified business helps us basically cover the volatility that comes out of the film business… the theatrical window in a lot of ways is just one data point, and the real value of that IP is the cumulative benefit of decades-long storytelling and our ability to take that IP and lay it into the entirety of the Disney flywheel.”
That statement makes more sense, if we’re being honest. Disney can afford for some films to underperform because it is using that publicity in so many other ways. When A24 releases a movie, and it doesn’t do well, they can’t sit back and roll in the hundreds of millions they’re getting from merch and theme park revenues (though we’d 100% go to an A24 theme park). Disney isn’t going to fail because a few of its movies fail. (It’ll fail if ALL of its movies fail but, clearly, that’s not the case. See Toy Story 5.) However, it will succeed to a much greater extent when movies do well, and that’s what D’Amaro is not mentioning here.
So yes, The Mandalorian and Grogu and Moana will help other arms of Disney’s business. But surely those arms would be much, much stronger if those films performed up to franchise expectations.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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