Disney's strategy shift: fewer films, aiming for quality over quantity

Recently, we discussed the declining performance of Disney movies, which have become a source of amusement in Hollywood over the past few months. The famous studio has recently announced that it lacks a concrete plan to turn its fortunes around.

This marks Disney's most challenging phase in several decades. Last year, four of the top five financial disappointments were Disney productions. In the past, Disney spent billions of pounds acquiring studios like Pixar (for computer animations), Marvel (for comic book adaptations), 20th Century Fox (home of "Avatar"), and Lucasfilm (known for "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones"), establishing itself as a movie industry titan. Sadly, its period of unchecked dominance appears to be over.

Last year, films such as "Marvel", "Indiana Jones and the Artifact of Destiny", "Wish", and "Haunted Mansion" incurred losses for Disney totalling approximately £490 million. Additionally, Marvel and the "Star Wars" series produced for the streaming platform fell short of expectations, leading to a decline in Disney+ subscribers.

Unfortunately, the Walt Disney Company's statement to the press suggests that its only strategies for improvement are cutting back production and concentrating on proven successes—a surprising stance for a company that, despite recent setbacks, remains the world’s largest media conglomerate.

Bob Iger, the film studio's chief executive, mentioned that the new overarching strategy would focus on producing fewer but higher-quality content. This means that there will be just two comic book adaptations per year (with a maximum of three in exceptional cases) and two Marvel Universe series, which equals a reduction in output by about 50 per cent.

This year, we’ll see just one MCU film - "Deadpool & Wolverine", set to premiere in July. The remaining films have been postponed to 2025 as "Marvel Studios wishes to spend more time enhancing their quality." Let’s wait and see.

Concerning future initiatives, Iger also stated: "We aim to strike a balance between sequels and fresh concepts, particularly in animation. There was a time when our original movies and animations, from Disney and Pixar, were dominant in cinemas. We intend to return to that era, though we’ll still lean on some sequels". In the coming period, we can expect returns such as "Toy Story 5", "Moana 2", "Inside Out 2", and "Frozen 3".