Disney’s New Plan for Pixar

More than 18 years ago, The Walt Disney Company solved arguably its most pressing problem: the current state of animation.

New CEO Bob Iger went to Apple and persuaded legendary entrepreneur Steve Jobs to sell something valuable.

In the blink of an eye, Pixar Animation Studios switched from being the bane of Disney’s existence to one of its pillars.

At the time, critics lamented Disney’s willingness to pay $7.4 billion on computer animation, flying in the face of the company’s storied history.

Alas, the results speak for themselves, with Pixar justifying that purchase many times over.

Sadly, the pandemic ended Pixar’s streak of near invincibility with its theatrical releases.

Now, a course correction is underway. Here’s Disney’s new plan for Pixar.

The Eternal Hollywood Debate

The catch-22 of storytelling, especially in Hollywood, involves the perennial debate of original stories versus sequels.

When Disney purchased Pixar in 2006, several unforgettable projects were already underway.

Still, Disney can take at least some credit for the releases of Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Up.

However, critics noted that the first wave of post-purchase titles were 2010’s Toy Story 3 and 2011’s Cars 2.

An animated film takes several years to complete, which makes the timelines here a bit sketchy.

No matter where you stand on the topic, it’s fair to say that Disney wanted Cars 2 for merchandising purposes.

The Cars brand is quietly one of the most lucrative of the 21^st century.

Since Disney had just spent billions of dollars on Pixar, a Cars sequel would lead to a wave of new merchandising opportunities.

The profits from these toys would partially offset the cost of the Pixar purchase.

Everyone understood that, and it was a smart business choice. Even so, the consecutive sequels left a bad taste in some mouths.

After all, Pixar had released only one sequel in its history, and that title, Toy Story 2, had been at Disney’s urging.

Then, once Disney called the shots, two more sequels arrived in theaters, establishing a fear that Pixar would phase out new stories.

Thankfully, those fears proved largely unfounded. Three of Pixar’s next four releases were original stories.

Those titles included Brave, Inside Out, and The Good Dinosaur.

I don’t need to tell you about the success of Inside Out, which gains a sequel this year.

Alas, The Good Dinosaur was Pixar’s least successful project to date by most evaluations.

Disney’s Pixar Mix in the 2010s

In between these releases, Pixar also unveiled Monsters University and Finding Dory.

The Monsters, Inc. prequel somehow felt like a box office underachiever, earning $743 million against a $200 million budget.

Thankfully, Finding Dory was a blockbuster, crossing $1 billion for the same $200 million cost.

This steady mix of new Pixar tales followed by sequels and prequels became Disney’s business model.

After Finding Dory, Cars 3 struggled a bit, managing $384 million against a $175 million budget.

Again, Disney made that movie for the merchandise sales, though. Why would they do that? Here’s a chart that explains it all.

At the time of this graph, only Star Wars sold more items than Cars, a franchise that bested even Toy Story at this point.

Since Disney hasn’t released another Cars movie since then, that’s no longer the case, but it shows the business model in play.

The Disney flywheel earns revenue across divisions, and Cars 3 only needed to remind kids that they love Lightning McQueen.

That same concept explains the existence of Toy Story 4 and the prequel origin story, Lightyear.

As a film, Lightyear unquestionably lost a lot of money, but Disney monetized it in other ways.

Pixar’s beloved characters provide a constant revenue stream of toy sales, a point I can prove simply by looking in my closet or on my shelves.

Fans love these characters and purchase the merchandise accordingly.

The Pixar Setback

Of course, to fall in love with the characters and buy the gear, we must first watch the films.

That stopped happening during the pandemic. Before then, the studio was on a roll with titles like Coco, The Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 4.

Those three titles averaged more than $1 billion at the box office and sold plenty of merch, too.

Then, Onward debuted on March 6^th, 2020, and thereby became the worst-timed Disney movie ever. Remember this?

When the world shut down, Pixar faced a particularly unfortunate fate.

Disney had listened to criticisms of its handling of Pixar films, noting that some felt too many sequels were being released.

Onward represented the first of four straight original stories, followed by a prequel, and then another new IP.

So, as the pandemic shut down society, Disney tried to introduce the world to Onward, Soul, Luca, Turning Red, Lightyear, and Elemental.

The first four of those films all debuted on Disney+, a necessary concession since social gatherings like movie theaters proved problematic.

While each of the films performed well on streaming – Luca was a bona fide blockbuster – a change occurred.

Disney had unintentionally trained consumers to watch Pixar films in their homes rather than in movie theaters.

When Lightyear debuted as a theatrical release, people didn’t show up.

In 2023, the exceptional Elemental suffered Pixar’s worst opening of the 21st century.

Since then, Elemental made quite the comeback, earning nearly $500 million in box office and then becoming a mainstay on streaming.

Still, people couldn’t help but notice the timing. The new Pixar stories came out during the pandemic, and consumers changed their behavior.

When Pixar tried theatrical releases again, audiences didn’t follow, at least not to the same degree.

The Two Problems Facing Pixar          

The pandemic caused two lingering issues for Disney with the Pixar brand.

One is the disruption of consumer behaviors. The other is that the new stories didn’t perform as well as the sequels and prequels.

That second statement is a bit glib to me, as Lightyear demonstrates that nothing would have worked in 2022.

Only one animated movie, Minions: The Rise of Gru, earned more than $500 million. For that matter, only two did in 2023.

Families have learned that they can wait to watch a movie at home rather than go to the trouble of going to the theater.

For a parent, a day at the movies often turns into an adventure…and an expensive one at that.

So, Disney’s animated titles must demonstrate high enough quality to justify that aggravation for consumers.

2023’s Wish failed to do that, which shows it’s not just a Pixar problem but a lingering company-wide concern.

Disney’s New Plan for Pixar

Disney CEO Bob Iger has personally attacked the problem, coming up with the new guidelines for animated films.

A key part of this strategy is to play it safe in the short term. Disney will move away from original stories for a while.

Instead, you can expect more of what happened in 2010-2013. Most upcoming Pixar releases will feature existing characters.

Pixar lists four films on its current schedule, two of which are Inside Out 2 and Toy Story 5.

Next year, we will get an original story in Elio, which looks delightful.

We’ve also got a mystery film, an untitled one, coming out in 2026.

In a recent Bloomberg article, a Pixar executive admitted that the studio has considered The Incredibles 3 as well.

At this point, Disney appears willing to play it safe with Pixar until such a time as the industry has adapted to its pandemic-caused disruption.

So, many of the Pixar favorites you know could return in some form soon. Remarkably, Pixar might even reboot some favorites.

Here’s a quote from the Bloomberg article: “Every hit of yesteryear is being considered for a reboot, with Finding Nemo and The Incredibles regarded as particularly strong candidates for new titles.”

I…don’t know how to feel about that. And then we have a final piece of Pixar-related confusion.

An Inside Out TV Show?

When Bob Chapek was running Disney, he prioritized Disney+ above all else. He viewed it as Disney’s future.

During that era, Chapek would greenlight many Disney+ projects, some of which involved Pixar.

After all this time, we’ll finally watch one of them soon. Win Or Lose will debut later this year, barring something unforeseen.

However, that’s apparently not all, which is a bit of a surprise. Just the other day, Disney finally confirmed the Pixar layoffs.

Fourteen percent of Pixar’s staff will leave due to this cost-cutting measure.

Ostensibly, Disney doesn’t need the staff because Pixar is no longer producing animated series for Disney+.

However, Bloomberg reports the following: “Pixar is also releasing a television series based on Inside Out.”

The reporter follows this by stating later: “Dream Productions, set in the Inside Out universe of Riley’s dreams, will air next year.”

So, Pixar isn’t getting out of the Disney+ business as much as previously thought…just last week.

Now, this could be just the latest sign of growing confidence in Inside Out as a brand, which is understandable.

Still, I can’t help but conclude that Disney’s new plan for Pixar remains in flux as the companies navigate a changing marketplace.

Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below, and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond Level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon!