What Happened to Disney Animation?

The highest-grossing animated movie in the past 5 years was the new Lion King in 2019. It grossed $1.66 billion worldwide. The second highest-grossing, Frozen II at $1.45 billion worldwide, was also released in the same year. Both of these movies were produced by Walt Disney Pictures. In fact, six of the top ten highest-grossing animated movies of all time were produced by Disney. But this statistic does not reflect today's animated movie industry.

The last two major Disney animated movies had a lackluster opening weekend box office. Elementals (2023) debuted with $29.5 million domestically and $44.5 million globally. Wish (2023) debuted with only $19.5 million domestically, a number so low Forbes called it “One Of Disney’s Worst Openings Ever For An Animated Movie.”

But this is not a new trend. In fact, since 2019, no Disney animated movie has been able to breach the top 50 highest-grossing animated list. The three highest-grossing animated movies since 2019 were not Disney productions: The Super Mario Bros. Movie (at $1.36 billion), Minions: The Rise of Gru (at $940 million), and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (at $690 million). Both Mario and Minions were produced by Universal, while Spider-Man was produced by Sony Pictures.

It is difficult to identify why Disney animated movies have slumped behind those from other production companies. There are a number of factors to consider ranging from the content of the film itself to its marketing and audience demographic. But it is possible that this drop in numbers is not the result of poor writing or executive decisions. Instead, Disney appears to be in the process of considering new mediums of presentation for the industry of animated movies.

Scanning the list of Disney animated films released in the past few years, it might appear that Disney has been focusing on producing spin-offs or sequels of already-established franchises: Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), ​​Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Toy Story 4 (2019), The Lion King (2019). Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 are scheduled to release later this year with Zootopia 2 in the following year. This is a stark departure from the release schedule of Disney animated movies prior to 2017 which seemed to prioritize the production of movies with original plots. From 2010 to 2015, Tangled (2010), Wreck-It-Ralph (2012), Brave (2012), Frozen (2013), Big Hero 6 (2014), Inside Out (2015), The Good Dinosaur (2015), Zootopia (2016), Moana (2016), all original movies, were released one after the other, year after year.

But while it is true that Disney prior to 2017 released less sequels or spin-offs than in the past five years, original animated movies have still very much been a focus for the production studio. Since 2017, Walt Disney Pictured has produced ten original animated movies: Coco (2017), Onward (2020), Soul (2020), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), Encanto (2021), Luca (2021), Strange World (2022), Turning Red (2022), Elemental (2023), and Wish (2023). However, compared to the box office numbers of original productions prior to 2017, these original movies in the past five years have sold far less. In fact, a majority of these productions could not even break even.

While the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic no doubt affected the total box office for these movies, it is important to recognize that a large number of these movies released during the pandemic debuted on the Disney streaming service Disney+, not in theaters. Soul (2020), Luca (2021), and Turning Red (2022) all debuted on Disney+ before theaters. In fact, almost every Disney movie that has debuted in theaters since 2019 has eventually been re-released on Disney+. Some of these movies even perform better on their opening weekends on Disney+ than in theaters.

For instance, Elemental (2023), which has climbed to a box office of $500 million since its initial historically low debut, re-released on Disney+ to a viewership of 26.4 million worldwide in its first five days. It was the most viewed animated movie premiere on Disney+ since Turning Red in 2022. In a press release in September of 2023, Disney stated that “Elemental is the most watched movie premiere of the year on Disney+ and among its Top 10 movie premieres of all time.”

While it is too early to tell, streaming services seem to have a significant presence for the future of animated movies. It does not appear that Disney will stop debuting their animated movies in the theater any time soon. But, with a platform like Disney+, there are new opportunities for the presentation of animated movies that may slowly change the industry.