Back in 2019, Disney had seven $1 billion movies and yet not a single one of the studio’s blockbusters managed to cross that golden line last year.
This is the first time since 2014 (not including the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021) that this happened to the Mouse House.
And now the net loss of Disney’s four biggest box office bombs of 2023 have been calculated with a grand total of -$628 million down the drain in the studio’s 100th anniversary year. This comes after they lost over $300 million in 2022 on two “woke” kids movies.
Disney’s Marvel Studios released three MCU movies this year with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania making a profit of around $30 million and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 one of around $124 million.
However, considering Marvel’s previous billion-dollar successes in recent years, these aren’t particularly celebratory for the franchise. And then there was The Marvels, which was a box office disaster in the latter half of the year.
Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel 2, The Marvels made just over $206 million and became the lowest-grossing movie in the MCU’s 16 year history.
As a result, the blockbuster made a loss of $237 million worldwide despite mixed reviews, according to Deadline.
Next up is Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which, despite initial rumours of being $300 million in the negative, still had an enormous net loss of $143 million.
Meanwhile, Disney’s 100th anniversary animated film Wish was $131 million in the negative, alongside Haunted Mansion’s $117 million net loss.
Poor reviews combined with the opportunity to wait to see these movies on Disney+ during a cost of living crisis will no doubt have contributed to the studio’s hundreds of millions of dollars lost in 2023.
Nevertheless, Disney boss Bob Iger will presumably be feeling more confident for the 2024 slate turning the studio’s fortunes around with the likes of Inside Out 2, Deadpool and Wolverine, Moana 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King being potential $1 billion box office contenders.