Disney+ in trouble… but, phew, the new Toy Story and Frozen are coming

After a difficult year 2022, the Disney studio wishes to relaunch by betting on its strongest licenses.

The Disney empire faltered last year, with a stock price that plummeted nearly 40% and the surprise appointment of former director Bob Iger called in to help raise the bar after such a short reign than disastrous of his successor Bob Chapek.

The golden age of streaming and unlimited spending is over

The strategy focused almost exclusively on streaming and Disney+ was short-lived. The platform, which lost 2.4 million subscribers in the last quarter of 2022, continues to incur losses of between 1 and 1.5 billion dollars every 3 months.

The production and acquisition costs are very high for a very difficult return on investment. Disney still says its platform will be profitable by the end of fiscal year 2024, but that will come at the cost of several spending cuts.

The studio thus plans to reduce the airfoil, with 3 billion dollars in savings on content and a total of 5 billion dollars earned each year on group expenses, in addition to 7,000 job cuts. To relaunch, Bob Iger also wants to focus again on theatrical releases and has announced 3 new projects in development.

Proven recipes to ensure success in theaters and in stores

It’s in the old pots that we make the best jams, and Disney has understood this well by presenting its next three films. The studio will offer in the coming years Zootopia 2a sequel to the animated film released in 2016 and from which a series was drawn, Zootopia+available on Disney+.

Without surprise, Snow Queen will return in a third adventure. As a reminder, the second installment, released at Christmas 2019, raised $1.45 billion worldwide and became the highest-grossing animated film in history, not counting revenue from merchandising and amusement parks.

The latest project announced by Bob Iger comes this time from Pixar studios with Toy Story 5, a new adventure that will bring together Woody, Buzz Lightyear and their friends. Disney had suffered a serious setback with the spin-off Buzz Lightning in 2022, shunned by the public and signing the worst score for a Pixar film, outside of the pandemic. The big-eared studio has grasped the message well and will return to basics to satisfy its audience.

We can deplore a crying lack of originality, but Disney has not had success with its original films. Avalonia, the strange journey was a bitter failure whileEncanto was a semi-success, far from the delirious figures of Snow Queen, Rapunzel Or The Lion King. In this period of economic crisis, Disney has its back covered with proven recipes that can easily be broken down into derivative products, attractions and shows.

Source : variety