Financial and box office analyst Valliant Renegade claims The Walt Disney Company burned through $500 million in just November this year.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 10: Brie Larson attends THE MARVELS Movie Theater Pop-In on November 10, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Disney)
In a recent video upload, Valliant Renegade asserts, “This is the story of how The Walt Disney Company incinerated half a billion dollars in November.”
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He went on to explain, “November has been spectacularly terrible. First, there was The Marvels, a sequel that absolutely nobody asked for and everybody but Disney seemed to know long in advance that this movie was likely to flop and flop it did.
“A $300 million production budget on this complete catastrophe, which looks like it may end its run just about where we projected it would before it opened, somewhere around $225 million or so and it may even be lucky to get there,” he continued. “It really depends on how well this thing can hang on even just eking its way over $200 million in total global grosses between now and say the end of the year as we approach the Christmas holiday season.”
Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.
Moving on from The Marvels to Wish, he said, “And then the latest debacle for Disney, Wish, an absolutely soulless, corporatized, terrible film that has no redeeming value whatsoever except to plan a bunch of 100th anniversary Easter eggs up and down the film with seemingly haphazard levels of care. Even the animation and cinematography choices in this film seemed very flat. And many of the musical pieces in this film I’m sure Disney intended to have big TikTok hits, but that didn’t happen. It may as well have been completely composed and performed by artificial intelligence.”
With a just over $31 million 5-day opening weekend domestically, this may turn out to be Disney’s worst performance at the box office since Treasure Planet back in 2002,” Valliant Renegade noted. “And I’m going to remind folks that Treasure Planet only cost about a $100 million to make, half of what it cost to make Wish and that movie had a final global box office haul of just shy of $100 million. Wish might not even get there and we’re not even talking about adjusting Treasure Planet’s box office for inflation in the past two decades.”
EVERYONE HAS A WISH – In Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Wish,” Asha’s pet goat, Valentino, is among the first to experience the magic of Star, a little ball of boundless energy inadvertently summoned by Asha. Featuring the voices of Academy Award®-winning actress Ariana DeBose as Asha and Alan Tudyk as Valentino, the epic animated musical “Wish” hits the big screen on Nov. 22, 2023. © 2023 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
After going over daily returns for Wish, Valliant Renegade notes that the film did not even bring in $1 million in its first Monday. In fact, it suffered an 83% decline from Sunday to Monday. On Sunday it grossed $4.4 million. By Monday, it only grossed $745,473.
“I cannot remember the last major Disney production whose first Monday was under a million dollars,” he said. “We’d probably have to go back at least a decade or two. Oh wait, last year, Strange World. Good job, Disney. Killing it in November. I guess I forgot Strange World existed just like everybody else.”
LOST AND FOUND — Walt Disney Animation Studios’ original action-packed comedy adventure “Strange World” introduces the Clades, a family that comes together in an uncharted, treacherous land. Jake Gyllenhaal voices Searcher Clade, who unexpectedly finds himself on a mission to this strange world, where he happens upon his long-lost, larger-than-life father. Voiced by Dennis Quaid, Jaeger Clade always wanted to be the kind of explorer legends are made of—but, lost during an expedition, nobody had heard from him in decades. Helmed by director Don Hall (Oscar®-winning “Big Hero 6,” “Raya and the Last Dragon”) and co-director/writer Qui Nguyen (co-writer “Raya and the Last Dragon”), with Roy Conli (Oscar®-winning “Big Hero 6,” “Tangled”) producing, “Strange World” releases November 23, 2022. © 2022 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
Valliant Renegade then noted how The Walt Disney Company has burned through so much money just on these two films in November 2023, “So if The Marvels finishes out slightly above $200 million and Wish somehow magically works it way up to $150 to $200 million then that means that these two movies combined may only actually recover the monies that The Walt Disney Company spent just to market these things into theaters. About $100 million a piece is a fair average in 2023 for The Walt Disney Company, which is lower than what it was previously because their movies used to be bigger hits, but Disney has since seemingly pulled back on a lot of those marketing dollars, but it’s still a big spend nonetheless.”
“That means the $200 million the Disney company spent on Wish and the $300 million they spent on The Marvels is completely gone,” he asserted.
Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo by Laura Radford. © 2023 MARVEL.
Valliant Renegade then stated, “Yeah, they turned cash into an intellectual property asset something that The Walt Disney Company would normally depreciate over the course of time, but when there is no real revenue to come down the road except maybe a few PVOD sales. That’s going to be about it. There’s not much left to go with these things. It’s not as if Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and Ms. Marvel are in high demand at Universal Studios in Orlando, who the rights to have the Marvel characters in that theme park. And it’s not as if the songs or the toys, merchandise in general from either of these films is going to make any real sales.”
“Disney will once again be swiping the $15 billion in the hole direct-to-consumer or rather Disney+ credit card to feed some money over to these productions to say, ‘Look, they made some licensing income for post-theatrical streaming.’ But, of course, that’s The Walt Disney Company shuffling numbers on a balance sheet or rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, same thing,” he said.
Valliant Renegade added, “November 2023 will go down as the worst month in box office history for a single studio. Congratulations, Disney.”
RULER OF ROSAS – Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Wish” is set in Rosas, a magical kingdom where wishes really do come true. The ruler of Rosas, King Magnifico, is the sole keeper of hundreds of wishes entrusted to him by people from all over the world. Featuring the voice Chris Pine as Magnifico, the all-new musical-comedy is helmed by Oscar®-winning director Chris Buck (“Frozen,” “Frozen 2”) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (“Raya and the Last Dragon”), produced by Peter Del Vecho (“Frozen,” “Frozen 2”) and co-produced by Juan Pablo Reyes (“Encanto”). “Wish” opens only in theaters on Nov. 22, 2023. © 2023 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
The Marvels has currently grossed $187.2 million globally so far. Of that number it’s only brought in $77 million from domestic theaters while $110.1 million have come from international theaters.
The movie posted its first sub $1 million day this past Monday where it only brought in $339,774 a 76% decline from Sunday, which grossed $1.4 million and a 70% decline from the previous Monday, which was$1.1 million. The film is currently the lowest grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe film of all time without even adjusting for inflation.
As for Wish the film has only grossed $32.3 million domestically and another $17.2 million internationally for a global gross of $49.6 million. It is currently the lowest grossing Walt Disney Animation Studios film of all time. The previous holder of that title was 2011’s Winnie the Pooh, which grossed $50.1 million. In 2023 dollars that would be around $68.5 million.
(Center, L-R): Zawe Ashton as Dar-Benn and Daniel Ings as Ty-Rone in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.
What do you make of Valliant Renegade’s analysis that The Walt Disney Company has burned through $500 million with Wish and The Marvels?
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