The Walt Disney Company saw its fair share of disasters in 2024, even as Hollywood’s biggest studio continued to wield enormous power across media and politics.
Disney repeatedly attacked now-President-elect Donald Trump throughout the campaign cycle, resulting in a bad year for ABC News. The studio saw its biggest streaming show of the year flop with subscribers, yet another ominous sign for the Disney+ service. And Disney closed out the year with a major box-office bomb.
For CEO Bob Iger, 2024 was something of a transition period as the company continued in recovery mode following two financially difficult years. Iger swung the ax yet again across multiple Disney properties, with layoffs at Pixar, ABC News, NatGeo, and more.
Last year, Iger laid off 7,000 workers worldwide, or three percent of its workforce, as the company’s financials tanked.
Disney can take solace in the success of its blockbuster sequels — Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine were the two top-grossing movies of the year.
But for every Moana 2 that rakes in a fortune, Disney also lays a giant egg, further sullying the studio’s formerly sterling reputation. Here are Disney’s biggest disasters for 2024.
The Acolyte
With a budget that one estimate put at close to a quarter of a billion dollars, Disney’s latest Star Wars spin-off series aimed to be a streaming blockbuster that would help drive subscriptions. Instead, the series tanked with viewers and was canceled after just one season. Who’s to blame? Most critics pointed to its weak and pointless story, unengaging main actress Amandla Stenberg pointlessly playing two twins, and pointless virtue signaling (a coven of lesbian witches saying they are not welcome in the galaxy, the casting of a transgender actor in a supporting role, and showrunner Leslye Headland herself, who promoted the series as the “gayest Star Wars” ever).
Disney+ Woes
The Acolyte‘s failure is emblematic of the entire streaming service Disney+, whose original and exclusive content has not resulted in the market dominance Iger had hoped for. As the year drew to a close, headline after headline signaled trouble for the content platform. In September, Disney slashed prices for new subscribers to $1.99 a month, hoping to boost its Q4 numbers. This month, an ad industry expert reported that companies are pulling their dollars from Disney+ due to unimpressive subscriber numbers, and Disney was shut out on the streaming charts by Netflix, Amazon, Paramount+, and even Peacock.
Mufasa: The Lion King
In what was supposed to be a box-office slam dunk, this “live action” prequel to The Lion King opened to a hugely disappointing $35 million — way off from the already muted expectation of $50 million. The movie could still find its legs, but the opening was a catastrophe for Disney, which was hoping to turn The Lion King into its own movie franchise.
ABC News
The Disney-owned news network face-planted hard during the presidential campaign. First, debate anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis put their fingers on the scale in favor of Kamala Harris, resulting in a rigged match that was too obvious to ignore. Muir paid the price — his World News Tonight ratings tanked the week after the debate. Then, host George Stephanopoulos stepped in it when he defamed Trump on-air, resulting in a more than $15 million settlement. The Bob Iger wing of the Trump presidential library is going to look grand.
Looking Ahead
As 2025 approaches, Disney is readying to launch one of its biggest titles: Snow White, starring Rachel Zegler, opens in less than three months. In February, Pixar will release its first-ever TV series, Win or Lose. Both projects have made major changes to appeal more to non-woke audiences.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at [email protected]
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