A stunning report detailed the expenses on Disney films and found that the totals of just four of its big-budget projects lost the company more than half a billion in 2023.
Disney films showed up repeatedly on a list of the biggest bombs of the year, and the amount of money the mouse brand is willing to shell out only for the movies to end up deeply in the red is truly mesmerizing.
The report by Deadline is a real eye opener in terms of the volume of cash that can be evaporated by a studio — even outside of the actual production budget — when a film doesn’t live up to expectations.
The outlet reported that typically Disney pumps out the majority of the top 10 most-profitable films in a year due to its Marvel movies, but those figures have largely unraveled due to the losses of Disney+. However, it should be noted that Disney and Marvel movies have suffered from insufferable wokeness and diversity-driven casting, which of course CEO Bob Iger denies.
Topping the list of flops was “The Marvels,” a project that checked a lot of boxes for the film studio as a diverse, female-led and directed superhero movie. Unfortunately, the movie’s $218 million in revenues was overshadowed by a $270 million production budget along with over $100 million in advertising. It crossed the finish line with an estimated $237 million loss.
Disney was rated the worst movie studio of 2023 by Variety, and it’s no wonder given that for the entire year moviegoers were perplexed that the studio seemed unwilling to change its ideological path.
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” was yet another heartache for both the studio and fans of the franchise. With reports of rewrites and reshoots after leaked storylines angered fans, it was hard to imagine the film could turn around the negative hype.
Add on a reported $80 million in post-production costs to de-age Harrison Ford, and it’s no surprise the film made the list.
The expenses totaled $300 million in production, $120 million in ads, and another $96 million in residuals, distribution, and overhead. The film lost about $143 million according to Deadline, meaning even showing Indiana Jones with his true face for the film’s entirety couldn’t have saved it.
Disney’s “Wish” suffered terrible reviews and went relatively unnoticed even to Disney’s most critical observers.
$300 million in production and advertising easily dwarfed its box office and streaming numbers, leaving the studio with -$131 million.
The animated film about the production company’s own legacy wasn’t the biggest hit with young girls who likely expected a better storyline for a Disney princess. The report described the movie as reeking of corporate product with nothing magical about it.
Keeping in line with strange movie ideas, Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” is the studio’s second foray into making a movie based around its theme-park attraction of the same name. While the Eddie Murphy-led 2003 iteration seemingly performed very poorly, it still outshined the 2023 film.
The 2003 flick saw a global box office of $182 million, but 20 years later, the new version could only make $117 million. Against a $150 million production budget, the totals were again not on Disney’s side with $117 million in losses.
In total, that left Disney with an estimated $628 million in losses from just four movies. How the company fairs in 2024 is anyone’s guess, but it’s hard to imagine Mickey can lose that much money without some big-name budgets suffering severe flops in theaters.
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Align, Disney, Marvel, The marvels, Indiana jones, Haunted mansion, Wish, Movies, Entertainment
