Have Animated Films Lost Their Spark?

Since the Coronavirus pandemic, the film industry has had trouble getting people out of their houses and back into theaters. The last Disney animated film before 2020 was ‘Frozen 2’, which surpassed $1 billion and now stands at spot 13 for the highest grossing movies of all time. But films like ‘Lightyear’ and ‘Strange World’, which were two of the few post-pandemic Disney films to be released, showed that Disney is struggling to get back on its feet. Both movies received very low ratings, and barely were able to earn back the movies’ expenses. “Per Deadline, Strange World returned total revenues of only $165 million against its $180 million production costs, with advertising and other expenses pushing the total to over $317 million. Similarly, Lightyear only brought in $267 million against its $373 million expense total, bringing the net loss for the studio to an eye-watering $106 million.” (John Dodge, 2023). 

Animated movies could also be suffering due to the rise in the use of streaming services, which allows people to access a variety of their favorite flicks within the comfort of their home. Disney recently found a way to take advantage of this trend after creating their own streaming service in 2019, and were profiting off their own productions, along with ones made by Pixar, Marvel, ABC, etc. They even released some animated films that were exclusive to Disney+, like Soul (2020), Luca (2021) and Turning Red (2022). “As the company shifted to streaming, it seemed set up to lap Netflix and eat the box office at the same time. But today, Disney’s stock is at a nine-year low. Operating margins are down 75 percent. Disney+ lost $4 billion last year.” (Derek Thompson, 2023). This just shows that the attempt to continue making movies for the theaters as well as movies for streaming actually contributed to their downfall.

It hasn’t been all bad though…there have still been some animated movies outside of the Disney franchise that have been able to cross the one billion dollar threshold and gain themselves a larger audience. ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’, produced by Universal Pictures, came out in March of 2023, and was one of the most successful movies of the year. There is also the movie ‘Spider Man: Across the Spider Verse’, a highly anticipated and critically acclaimed sequel that came out five years after its predecessor: ‘Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse’. An article stated “Since theaters returned to capacity, Disney and its subsidiary Pixar's animated footprint has been microscopic when compared to rival studios, with Illumination and Sony Pictures Animation making strides at the box office and in the culture.” (Aahil Dayani, 2023). This just shows that the ‘underdogs’ of animation studios are steadily making their comebacks by releasing good-hearted and unique stories that haven’t been told before.