The Walt Disney Company can’t get out of its own way.
The entertainment conglomerate over the past few years has struggled in virtually every aspect of its businesses. It’s threatening to put television assets up for sale, and even the once invincible theme parks have seen a significant decline in attendance in recent months.
But Disney has historically relied on its film studio to drive revenue, merchandise opportunities, theme park attractions and ancillary marketing efforts. And the film studio might be the company’s biggest Achilles heel in 2023.
Film after film have been box office debacles, for varying reasons. “Lightyear” injected politics into a kids movie, a trend that continued with “Strange World” and “Elemental,” a Pixar film that proudly featured Disney’s first “non-binary” character in a children’s film.
Others have suffered from profound mediocrity, or unnecessary remakes of classic titles. Now its latest release is already proving to be another unmitigated disaster for a company becoming increasingly used to them.
“Haunted Mansion” was released on July 28, Disney’s second attempt at bringing the popular attraction to life. And it was greeted with resounding apathy, bordering on animosity.
Wagons from the Haunted Mansion ride are displayed on the red carpet for the world premiere of Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” at the Hyperion Theatre inside the Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, on July 15, 2023. (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Disney Sinking Further Into Financial Problems Of Its Own Making
According to Variety, the “Haunted Mansion” film cost roughly $150 million to make, before marketing. Given the massive marketing buys most major studio films make, it’s reasonable to assume at least another $100 million in costs.
With those figures, it’s possible the film needed to make at least $400 million worldwide to break even.
Its worldwide opening weekend generated $33 million. Disaster might be a significant understatement.
Simply, “Haunted Mansion” could lose hundreds of millions of dollars for Disney. After the company already lost close to a billion dollars on movies over the past few years.
While this latest release seems to have avoided the same woke political messaging of previous Disney efforts, it signals a systemic problem at the once-dominant studio. It simply doesn’t know what audiences want.
Current Disney releases are either politically divisive, determined to undermine its own heroes, or creatively bankrupt. A studio that used to be innovative, cutting edge and committed to appealing to the widest audience has inarguably lost its way.
The reasons for this collapse are varied, but they start with the company repeatedly focusing on the wrong targets. Disney’s political leanings have become a consistent topic of discussion, a disaster for what’s ostensibly a family friendly company.
Branding Issues Hurting Mouse House
As we’ve seen with the Bud Light fiasco, at some point, half the country will decide they’ve had enough. Alienating huge numbers of people has consequences, no matter what the media tries to tell you.
It’s now becoming a branding problem for Disney. Even when the work doesn’t reflect political bias, consumers are becoming less likely to see the latest Disney film. They’re less and less likely to choose a Disney vacation.
All because the company decided to plant its flag on supporting teaching kindergartners about radical gender ideology through pornographic books.
While that’s not the only explanation for the company’s rapid decline, it sure didn’t help.
Disney is an expensive product; its theme parks and hotels are pricey, Disney+ is an expensive luxury, and a day at the movies for a family is certainly not cheap. So why give your potential customers reasons not to spend their money on your product?
Like so many other corporations, Disney’s failed to learn a fairly obvious lesson. And it’s costing the company hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars.
The question now becomes, how many more financial disasters will it take for Disney to admit defeat?
The Collider site revealed that paying too much for the cast affected the budget of Haunted Mansion. Each actor of the film, including main actors like LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish… to Jamie Lee Curtis’ cameo role, has a salary of around 5 million USD, with a total cost of casting alone up to 75 million USD. – accounts for almost half of the total film budget. Since then, the production investment, the setting and especially the film’s effects have been difficult, being criticized as ugly and outdated as the 2003 film.
