DISNEY CRUSHED BY UNIVERSAL In Animated Box Office THREE YEARS IN A ROW! Can Disney Still Compete?

Disney, the once undisputed king of animated movies, has lost the box office race to archrival Universal Pictures for the last three years in a row — and there’s no sign of magical turnaround on the horizon. Can Disney even compete anymore?

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DISNEY CRUSHED By UNIVERSAL In Animated Box Office THREE YEARS IN A ROW! Can Disney Still Compete?

How Disney Animation Lost the Box Office Crown to Universal for 3 Straight Years – With No Turnaround in Sight
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/disney-animation-lost-box-office-140000214.html

NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell on Monday trumpeted his studio’s achievement. “I honestly think that not only are we challenging Disney Animation, but I would take our animation business over theirs right now,” he said on a conference call with investors. “We have an animation system now that rivals if not surpasses Disney.”

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And Universal is following Disney’s costly “Strange World” flop with this month’s “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” which has scored rave reviews (93% fresh and 8.3/10 on Rotten Tomatoes) and is tracking for a $20 million opening weekend and a healthy run through the holiday season.

The contrast in box office performance has been stark. Disney’s “Encanto” ($256 million) earned one-third less in late 2021/early 2022 than Universal’s “Sing 2” ($407 million), while Disney/Pixar’s “Lightyear” ($226 million) eventually earned less than both of Universal animated films from this spring and summer: Illumination’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” ($937 million) and DreamWorks Animations’ “The Bad Guys” ($250 million).

And Disney can’t even blame pandemic conditions for the deficit since every studio faced the same issues with families reluctant to return to theaters and hybrid theatrical/streaming releases.

Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” grossed under $160 million in early 2021 amid a hybrid release (in theaters and also on Disney+ for an extra $30) months after Universal and DreamWorks’ “The Croods: A New Era” legged out to $216 million under similar circumstances. However, even Paramount’s “Paw Patrol” movie earned $145 million in theaters while being concurrently available at no charge for subscribers on Paramount+.

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Is Disney’s streaming strategy to blame?
Recently bounced Disney CEO Bob Chapek was willing to trade box office revenue (and new theatrical franchises) for streaming gains, sending animated features like “Soul,” “Luca” and “Turning Red” straight to Disney+ in most territories, including the U.S. This was at a time when much live-action production had stalled due to the pandemic and Wall Street was all but forcing entertainment companies to mimic Netflix.

“Universal animated titles are all theatrical propositions and that’s really clear to the consumer,” an individual with knowledge of the animation space told TheWrap. “Disney has muddied the brand so the consumer doesn’t know what film is going where.”

Every major studio had to readjust due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Sony and Paramount leasing or selling many theatrically-intended films to streaming platforms and Warner Bros.’ “Project Popcorn” offering the studio’s entire 2021 theatrical slate in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously. By 2022, though, Warner Bros. had reverted to a 45-day theatrical window and Sony was offering longer windows for titles like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Lyle, Lyle Crocodile.”

“When Wall Street was judging these companies based on streaming subscriptions, it made sense to drop top movies on the services,” ScreenMedia founder and chief analyst Colin Dixon told TheWrap. “But now that Wall Street has reverted to judging the bottom line, there’s no such incentive to undercut theatrical and considerable post-theatrical revenue opportunities for the sake of subscription gains.”

According to one rival studio executive, Disney “hurt their triple-A perfect brand” by shuffling so many big-screen titles to its streaming service — and not recommitting to theatrical releases sooner. “Audiences used to see the Pixar logo in a theater, they knew they were seeing the best of what theatrical animation had to offer,” the insider said. “Instead, the Disney+ strategy has merely trained people to know they can just watch it at home.”