Cognition Dissemination: A Strange World for Disney’s Animated Future

Disney’s Strange World received a solid critical reception among professional reviewers and those who ventured to theaters to see it, which likely made the creators and cast feel good about their achievement. A pity they can’t feel that way about the commercial reception, as few have actually gone to see it compared to previous Disney films. The film made a mere $18.6 million over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the United States box office, one of the worst results ever for a Disney movie released during the period. It made only an additional $4.9 million in its second box office weekend, which made it clear that a word-of-mouth driven rebound will not happen. It’s estimated that Disney will lose around $100 million on Strange World’s theatrical run, a loss so large that movie purchases, rentals, and streaming will be unlikely to make the amount up.

There are multiple reasons for why it’s done so poorly, and the movie being “woke” due to having people of color and LGBTQ characters is unlikely to be part of that. Anyone who believes that will be unlikely to shut up about it for years to come. The classic 70s-style pulp sci-fi setting doesn’t appear to have much appeal for younger kids, and this isn’t the kind of movie most adults are willing to go to theaters to see themselves. These things are family affairs, after all. Between this and the similarly ill-fated Treasure Island, Disney’s had a hard time making an appealing animated adventure film.

There’s a bigger problem, though. Disney’s had a heap of terrible luck with animated movie performances in theaters in the last few years, since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold on society and only slightly loosened its grip. It’s worth pondering what will be done with them in the near future.

Walt Disney Animation Studios in particular hasn’t had a big hit in years, since Frozen II at the end of 2019. Raya and the Last Dragon was released between theaters and on Disney Plus as a premium film for a few months, so it’s tough to tell how it could have done at the box office without that pesky pandemic. Encanto did okay at the box office, but didn’t seriously take off until it reached Disney Plus, where it was one of the most watched streaming movies around for months on end. It’s possible Disney still wishes it performed better in theaters, though at this point, they’re perhaps at least hoping for Strange World to achieve the same accolades.

Pixar Animation Studios has had it even worse. Onward had the unfortunate luck of being released in theaters right before the pandemic, though it’s possible its performance might have been merely okay even before that occurred. The studio’s next three movies, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red, went right to Disney Plus, the last one to the extreme chagrin of the studio considering it released in March 2022, a time when plenty of movies were returning to theaters. Perhaps Lightyear’s underperformance can be explained by the audience being conditioned into waiting until movies were available for streaming, though the movie concept not being as appealing as a new Toy Story film and its quality being merely fine-enough didn’t help here.

There’s a lot riding on the performance of future Disney animated films, and the pressure on the creators is undoubtedly immense. Wish is coming from Disney’s studios next year. Pixar’s upcoming slate is more publicly robust, with Elemental coming in less than a year, and Elio and the considerably-safer Inside Out 2 due in 2024. Of these, it would be a surprise if Inside Out 2 didn’t perform well. The others are an open question.

The performances of the movies both Disney Animation and Pixar have in development right now will determine how many risks they can take in the future. Disney’s board might be observing the performance of these movies and making plans to push the teams in safer routes. In addition to more TV shows, this could mean surefire-hit sequels like Frozen 3 and perhaps Tangled 2 from Disney themselves, and perhaps a realization of a Disney Princess team-up film given a trial balloon in Ralph Breaks the Internet. For Pixar, perhaps movies like Toy Story 5, The Incredibles 3, and even Cars 4 could be in the cards. (The argument could be made that Inside Out 2 is already partly there.) Animated movies like these partially exist to sell merchandise, a significant factor in these decisions.

For a future scenario worth a shudder: Disney could increase their focus on live-action initiatives, including remakes and new films. Mufasa: The Lion King, the “live-action” The Lion King prequel, and perhaps an Aladdin sequel could be part of this, considering both of those performed considerably better than their animated counterparts. Perhaps this was former CEO Bob Chapek’s plan, considering his bad and outdated opinions on animation as CEO of Disney, and the feeling was reportedly mutual for Chapek from Disney’s animation departments. Somehow Bob Iger returned as CEO, but his new strategy remains to be seen.

Either way, Disney’s animation teams will soon enter a tumultuous period, the end result of which could be a grim one if all their creativity is sapped away for lower-risk projects. The pressure for success on movies like Wish and Elemental could not be higher.