Culture news Disney wanted to give itself a boost with this cult saga: with a loss of $130 million, this new episode only increased the poor results
Throughout 2023, Disney was looking for a glimmer of hope. In vain. Over the months, almost nothing has allowed the big-eared firm to turn things around. Worse still, the big names in his portfolio have not even managed to reverse the trend, like this cult saga which, in the end, did more harm than good: a new thorn in the side which cost more than $130 million.
A complicated year for Disney, weighed down by its strong franchises
Far be it from us to recall that the year 2023 was particularly complicated for Disney. However, the big-eared firm had what it took to succeed but, overall, the efforts made fell flat. For the centenary of the company founded by Walt Disney, it wasn’t really the party we were hoping for… Disappointing launches, difficulties in making various large-scale projects profitable, Marvel superheroes in crisis, animated films which have difficulty finding their audience or uniting as before, etc. If the blows were particularly difficult to take, Disney intends to get back on its feet and is looking to the future with, it seems, more serenity, in particular by choosing quality rather than quantity.
It is true that this is a criticism that could have been made against Disney during this particularly eventful year. The firm gave the feeling of having spread itself a little too thin, multiplying the releases inspired by its most popular franchises. In the lot, there was, for example, the new opus of the adventures of Indiana Jones, a release which came fifteen years after a fourth part criticized by fans. If it were the episode of all hopes, of reconciliation itself, Indiana Jones and the Clock of Destiny was received in an equally mixed manner, and this poor performance, both critical and financial, has further weighed down Disney as evidenced by the company’s latest reports.
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Indiana Jones dumps a mountain of greenbacks… straight into the trash
A few weeks after the film’s release, we knew thatIndiana Jones and the Clock of Destiny had pulled Disney down much more than up. Today, thanks to the information provided by Forbes and film economics expert Caroline Reid, we know that this observation is much more negative than we might have thought. As revealed by information from Forbesthe film’s failure at the box office ($387.2 million budget for $384 million in revenue) was accompanied by colossal losses for the company. What particularly made the bill heavier was the budget allocated to post-production which alone amounted to $79 million.
In terms of production this therefore brings us back to a budget of 308.2 million dollars, knowing that the front company responsible for the project received a reimbursement of 58.3 million dollars, reducing the total bill to 249.9 million of dollars. When we add up all the budgetary expenses, we therefore come back to 328.9 million (production + post-production), from which is further subtracted another reimbursement of 2.7 million dollars. At the end of these calculations, we therefore state that $326.2 million in spending, 192 of which were supported by Disney. The remaining 134.2 million therefore represent the remaining expenses and losses linked to the film since Disney only takes 50% of the film’s revenue, or 384, almost balancing the total budget. Consequently, there is indeed a huge shortfall of $134 million, which has gone up in smoke.. Eventually, the invigorating boost instead left a bright red mark on Disney’s face…
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