Disney was held to a higher standard, same with Pixar.
Yeah there’s reality TV, but when you go see a Pixar movie, you expect to be entertained but extremely high quality.
As a kid I was blessed with seeing movies like Finding Nemo in theaters, casually seeing 5Toy Story 3 on a random summer day, so I feel bad that kids today don’t get that with Pixar (by and large).
Audiences are rejecting their absolutely trrrivle movies unless it has good marketing and a crazy brand.
I’d like to think Moana 2 would’ve made more had they actually intended on an actual movie sequel instead of just rushing a Disney+ show. Brand wise do we really think Moana 2 is helping Disney like Moana 1bdid? Long-term it will not have viewership like the 1st, it will not become a classic like the 1st, it will likely not create many new Disney fans but just people going that like the IP itself. That is a business strategy that only works occasionally, you can’t apply it to your entire film output like they basically have.
Alice Thro if h the Looking Glass, Maleficent 2, and TRON: Ares to me prove that you can’t keep making slop endlessly. Why a movie like frozen 2 Moana 2 or Lilo and stitch succeed is they coast on franchises. It’s why last Jedi wasn’t a flop despite being terrible, but the returns went down. Rise of Skywalker only made $50M in profit versus force awakens’ $500M+ BTW.
In Star Wars’ cases I don’t buy that Star Wars couldn’t have been handled properly. Simply going with the original Galaxy’s Edge that wasn’t meddled with by Iger, not hiring JJ Abrams and instead a god tier sci-fi director for one, using Lucas’ story treatment, not lecturing your audience, making these movies for 12-year old boys, boom, you’d have a wildly different scenario today.
Why make a movie like TRON: Ares that is an automatic flop instead of actually trying?
You act like Disney’s brand should be mindless.
Pixar was like buying a Porsche. Like you literally could go back to back years in 2009 and 2010 and literally cheer for it in a best
Picture Oscar race.
If you don’t see the issue that they haven’t wanted to focus on quality like Steve Jobs wanted, and have just decided that “yea, these fools will come anyway we don’t have to try.” It’s a horrible long-term business strategy
And I disagree actually, Disney spends such a ridiculous amount on films and has the best IP but I would not say their output has been the best in the past few years. Maybe box office through cash grabs with the occasional solid movie (ie Guardians 3), but so few and far between it’s actually ridiculous.
They absolutely should stop dumbing down movies into generic slop, doing forced race swaps and messaging, and actually have quality control in the writing room, and only hire talent that gets it and just let them cook.
I’m glad you’re not the CEO because if your mantra is literally “just make whatever and attach Disney to it people will come” I don’t want to live in that world. I don’t even think Iger’s POVA is truly this bad
How much money did Rise of Skywalker leave on the table? Like with Dune each movie is going to make more than the last I’m sure. Even merchandising flopped for the Sequels because no one found the characters interesting.
It absolutely matters. You can have misses but Disney Has just gotten lazy. If Steve Jobs believes so, well then I believe it too.
Also even for reality TV there’s slop like House Hunters and then there’s shows like Survivor or big budget productions that have really good editing, etc.
I just say whatever you’re doing, not everything has to be the Mona Lisa, but you should always try to make the best possible thing you can. Life has to be more than just solving one problem after another and just creating and doing things that are cool.
TL;DR: Disney and Pixar used to operate at a premium quality bar—the kind where parents trusted the brand for memorable theatrical experiences that could compete for Oscars and build lifelong fans. That reputation is eroding because too much recent output feels like rushed cash-grabs coasting on IP rather than earning it through strong storytelling. They won’t likely create the same depth of fandom or merchandising longevity.
deadline.com
