Disney’s Disastrous Year Puts Its Movie Making Magic Into Question

Considering its massive layoffs earlier in the year, falling stock prices, and its overall box office failures, the Mouse House seems ready for a makeover in 2024. That’s despite 2023 marking Disney’s 100th anniversary in movie making, which should be reason for celebration. Instead, the studio’s damaged reputation, from putting messaging over entertaining, often makes more headlines than the films it releases. Looking back at the year, seven out of eight major theatrical releases from the studio greatly under-performed both nationally and internationally. Those that floundered considerably included the pre-Thanksgiving release “Wish,” “The Marvels,” which also released in November, the widely-anticipated “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” the live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid,” and the summer-remake “Haunted Mansion.”...