Thinking About The Future Of Disney Franchises
File this under: Financial Franchise Stability?
Yesterday, I saw a really interesting post over at Yahoo! Finance.
Daniel Roberts, editor-at-large penned the article: Disney will test the limits of ‘franchise fatigue’ in 2021 and 2022
And I was like, “Huh.”
Thinking out loud:
- Firstly, I want a cool title like “editor-at-large”.
- Secondly, I mean, it’s not like I hadn’t thought of franchise fatigue previously. But, like everyone else, I was pretty well caught up in the swirl of excitement around Disney Investor Day 2020.
After that incredible knowledge drop, I — literally — sat down in wonder regarding the breadth of stuff coming to Disney+ (etc). I mean I freaked out about having to keep up with it (writing-wise).
Two Much? Or Two Little?
However, I guess there are others who might be less enthusiastic about the Marvel and Star Wars franchise expansions:
That has been the most common knock on Disney for a few years now: that if Disney keeps hitting the Marvel and Star Wars piñatas, fans will get tired of it. But the numbers have proven the theory wrong — so far. Moviegoers vote with their wallets, and have voted in favor of more Marvel Cinematic Universe installments, more Star Wars stories… [and] The sheer mountain of original content Disney unveiled at its 2020 Investor Day this month was almost comical: 52 new shows or movies coming in the next three years across Disney Studios, Disney Animation, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, National Geographic, ESPN, and FX.
Then Roberts added:
Disney chairman Bob Iger said at the Investor Day presentation that Disney will always prioritize “quality, not volume,” which was hard to take seriously during a five-hour event where the biggest takeaway was quantity. But from a business perspective, the quantity is only a negative if a large number of these shows and movies bomb.
Fans Don’t Need to Like Everything
But the Yahoo editor-at-large had a really great counterpoint:
One retort to the “too much” criticism is that Disney doesn’t need every Star Wars fan to watch every Star Wars movie and show, and doesn’t need every Marvel fan to watch every Marvel movie and show. If a Marvel fan doesn’t like “She-Hulk,” that’s fine, as long as they like “WandaVision” or “Loki.”
Meanwhile, there’s a heck of a exploration of Disney’s next three years. And Roberts reminds the readers why, exactly, franchise fatigue could be a serious issue if quantity doesn’t equal quality. It’s a rare two-sided look at Disney’s upcoming production schedule. Have a read.