Up until recently, you could basically set your watch to any movie backed by the might of Disney turning out to be a box office success and nothing else, but the shine has seriously started to come off the Mouse House’s star in recent times for a number of reasons.
While the company has caught plenty of flak for dropping the acclaimed likes of Turning Red and Soul directly onto streaming – which did admittedly prove to be a blessing for the abominable Pinocchio remake – it can’t help but be noticed that Disney’s original fare has been stuttering among paying customers recently, and things could be about to get a lot worse.
Lightyear and Strange World both conspired to lose over $100 million apiece, while there are still no guarantees that The Little Mermaid will even end up turning a profit following its lackluster performance overseas so far. Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe suffered a recent misstep with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, not to mention subsidiary 20th Century Studios backing such colossal money losers as The Last Duel and Amsterdam.
Elemental releases at the end of next week, and it’s only tracking for a three-day debut of somewhere between $28 million and $38 million, which is hardly ideal for an animated escapade estimated to carry a budget of $200 million. If it wasn’t for Avatar: The Way of Water and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 shouldering most of the commercial burden, then Disney would have had its name attached to nothing but flop after flop dating back almost two years.
That’s not what you expect from one of the heaviest hitters in the game, and it’s something that needs to be rectified.
