Disney Stacks the Deck with Its 2025/2026 Film Schedule

Movie theaters are…not doing well these days.

Sure, we’ve had a few recent hits like Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, but those are the exceptions.

One-third of the way into 2024, we’re averaging one $100 million film per month.

In 2019, Disney alone had nine, ten if you count the shared production of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Since the pandemic, the story has changed, though.

Last year, Disney experienced a tumultuous box office campaign. Maybe you heard.

Ultimately, the company fired one of its most successful film executives ever and switched tactics.

Now, Disney has stacked the deck for Its 2025/2026 films, and we just learned a lot about what comes next.

Let’s take a deep dive into the newly updated Disney theatrical release schedule, which looks spectacular on paper.

Coming in 2024 – Fox Films

Technically, Disney released its first big film of 2024 the other day.

The title was The First Omen, but nothing screams Disney about that.

Instead, Disney’s 2024 release schedule unofficially begins with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes on May 10^th.

Again, this title isn’t very Disney, but it’s one of the valuable brands the company acquired with the Fox purchase.

That’ll be the underlying theme of Disney’s 2024 box office prospects.

Several of its biggest titles represent Disney in name only.

For example, let’s skip ahead until later this summer, when Deadpool & Wolverine debuts on July 26^th.

Many box office analysts expect this film to win the 2024 box office campaign.

At a minimum, this is Disney’s best bet to earn $1 billion in the worldwide box office for the first time since Avatar: The Way of Water.

While Deadpool is obviously a Marvel character, Fox built the brand, at least as a comic book movie.

Similarly, Alien: Romulus will come out three weeks later as a Disney release.

Nothing screams Disney like The Exorcist, Planet of the Apes, Deadpool, and Alien, right?

Well, that’s the thing. Disney is changing and evolving, a necessary change that Bob Iger anticipated several years ago.

Disney’s CEO worried about how long people would watch Disney+ without a content influx from an outside source.

That’s why Fox’s assets are now part of the Disney empire. We’ll test that theory in 2024.

More than half the titles on Disney’s current-year film slate come from (former) Fox productions. But then we have…

Coming in 2024 – Disney Films

The other movies coming soon aren’t involved in Disney’s recent turmoil/turnaround.

Instead, these are the few “normal” products remaining on the schedule.

We’re also discussing three established intellectual properties (IPs) that Disney will expand with new stories.

I’ve got a good feeling about two of them, while the other involves The Lion King, arguably Disney’s best-animated property.

Before then, we’ll get Inside Out 2 on June 14^th, and I’m wildly optimistic about this title.

The first was a masterpiece, and the love for the story has only grown over time. Now, we’re getting new emotions.

I fully expect Inside Out 2 to be Pixar’s best performer since the pandemic began.

Then, we have Disney’s other heavyweight animated films of the year.

The first is Moana 2, which nobody knew existed until a few months ago. Disney+ had planned it as a television series.

While that’s a bit of a concern regarding how the story will work in a condensed fashion, Moana is one of the most-watched streaming movies ever.

Fans remain devoted to this character, which explains why Disney has a sequel AND a live-action remake coming out soon.

I’ll be shocked if Moana 2 is anything but a massive blockbuster this November.

The following month, Mufasa: The Lion King debuts, and that’s a trickier topic.

The demand for all things Lion King remains outrageously high. However, the live-action remake proved divisive.

Also, some fans question the necessity of a Lion King prequel.

Based on the pedigree, I expect this film to do well, but it’s also the true Disney movie of 2024 that wouldn’t surprise me if it disappointed.

The Plan for 2025

Most of what I just evaluated was already known. In fact, here are Jared Talbot and I speaking on this very topic:

Similarly, part of Disney’s 2025 plans have been set in stone for a while.

The company announced the dates for Captain America: Brave New World, The Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, and Blade a while ago.

While Blade remains a mess behind the scenes, we’ve got a good idea of what Marvel will look like in 2025.

Similarly, Disney pushed Snow White to give the marketing team a chance to refocus.

The live-action remake, in general, has come under recent scrutiny, and certain media figures seem to have it in for Snow White.

Overall, Disney’s 2025 slate looks strong, though, and Disney just strengthened it even more.

Specifically, Tron: Ares is now scheduled for October 10^th. A good Tron movie should make a lot of money.

Even the divisive Tron: Legacy earned $400 million, more than double its $170 million budget.

Then, we have Pixar’s latest new IP, Elio, which features a charming premise where a young boy accidentally becomes the interstellar representative for Earth.

I have high hopes for this one, envisioning Elemental’s box office as the bare minimum.

Snow White will face the same struggles as The Little Mermaid due to the outside noise, but Disney’s other major 2025 releases are anchors.

All I need to do is say the names, and you’ll understand. They’re Avatar 3 and Zootopia 2.

By my count, at least three Disney movies should earn $1 billion next year, and that’s allowing for the current terrible state of the marketplace.

I wouldn’t be surprised if three others did, and Avatar could cross $2 billion again, which would be unprecedented.

Stacking the Deck in 2026

Here’s the new part of the conversation, as Disney just confirmed four titles for release in 2026.

In fact, they’ll all come out in less than three months!

The fun begins on May 1^st when the next Avengers movie arrives.

Disney’s current schedule still lists the title as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, but I understand this name will change.

What won’t change is the demand for a new Avengers movie, something we haven’t had since 2019.

You can imagine how exciting that will be to fans after seven years. So, this is an anchor title for Disney in 2026.

Remarkably, Avengers isn’t the only one. Arguably, an even better title will debut in theaters.

Disney just confirmed the release date of May 22^nd, 2026, for The Mandalorian & Grogu.

That’s Baby Yoda to you and me, and it’s all you need to know about the popularity of the next Star Wars movie.

Since The Mandalorian revealed “Baby Yoda,” I’ve described that little dude as a license to print money.

Disney will do just that over Memorial Day Weekend in 2026, with an Avengers and a Star Wars movie in theaters simultaneously.

Even More 2026 Blockbusters

Only four weeks later, Disney will do the same thing again as Toy Story 5 debuts. I don’t need to tell you how well that one will do.

Is there a concern about franchise fatigue? Sure. But you could have said the same thing about Toy Story 4, which earned more than $1 billion.

Since there will be a seven-year gap between Toy Story films, it’s not like Disney rushed a sequel, either.

Finally, we have arguably the most challenging movie on this list to evaluate.

The live-action remake of Moana will debut on July 10^th, 2026.

I said last month that Disney would delay this project, which is what happened.

Even after the push, we’re still talking about two different Moana movies coming out within 20 months of each other.

I worry that’s too much of the same thing, but that’s a 2024 concern we’ll have plenty of time to debate.

On paper, all four titles Disney just gave summer 2026 release dates count as tentpole blockbuster titles.

Disney has spent the past six months apologizing for the missteps of its 2023 film schedule. Nobody wants to do that again.

Right now, Disney’s remaining 2024 slate seems better than anyone else’s, but the 2025 and 2026 offerings are next level.

Of course, the counterpoint is that 2023 looked great on paper, too.

Nobody could have anticipated how much money Disney would lose with Wish, The Marvels, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

We still have a long way to go, but Disney’s new production appears to have righted the ship.

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Feature Photo: Disney