Disney Headlines for February 18th, 2025
In this week’s Disney Headlines, the movie studio shows faith in Stitch, Captain America: Brave New World does okay, and Elio enters the danger zone.
We’re talking Disney movies primarily this week because it’s either that or politics and, well, you know…
Stitch Buzz Grows
One of the open secrets at Disney is the merchandising success of Stitch.
Last year, I listed Lilo & Stitch as one of Disney’s strongest revenue brands.
Image Credit: Disney
This somewhat unheralded movie rivals juggernauts like The Lion King and Toy Story, which earned substantially more at the box office.
In case you didn’t know, Lilo & Stitch embodies the struggles of Disney’s film studio at the turn of the century.
Photo: Disney
Even when Disney produced a high-quality film, the marketing team failed to appreciate what it had.
Lilo & Stitch earned a modest $273 million, which is quite good for an $80 million project.
Photo: Disney
However, the opportunity cost loss is almost immeasurable in that Disney had a global phenomenon it didn’t recognize in time.
I vividly recall posting a glowing review of the film in 2002, only for people to indicate they didn’t know there was a new Disney movie.
Photo: Disney
Fortunately, the home video market was surging in popularity at the time, with people discovering Lilo & Stitch on DVD.
Children fell in love with the story just like we’ve witnessed recently with Moana and Bluey.
Photo: Disney
So, Disney created a new Disney Channel series that aired the following year.
Meanwhile, the company quickly realized that people bought every piece of Stitch merchandise available.
Photo: Disney Store
Fast forward 20 years, and that statement remains accurate.
In fact, Stitch gear sells so well that Disney has released monthly merch each of the past two years.
Stitch & Angel
Remnants of the Stitch Attacks Snacks collection populate my den as we speak.
About Lilo & Stitch 2025
Still, the release of a new Stitch movie has been slow-moving, which again makes no sense.
Disney announced the new project in 2018 at a time when virtually every classic animated film was linked to a live-action remake.
Image Credit: Disney
At one point, Disney snagged John M. Chu to direct the film, but he dropped out to make another small project called Wicked.
Yeah, you can hardly blame him for that, as Wicked is so popular it makes the blockbuster success of Crazy Rich Asians seem modest in comparison.
Photo: Universal
Still, all this happened during the pandemic, and it underscored Disney’s confusion about how to market the film.
When Disney announced the Lilo & Stitch remake, it quickly hedged its bet about a theatrical release.
Photo: Disney
In 2020, the prevailing belief was that this film would debut on Disney+, and that was before former CEO Bob Chapek went all-in on streaming.
Then, in 2024, Disney reversed course by changing the title to theatrical release, which makes perfect sense.
Photo: Disney
Disney is following the same blueprint from Moana 2, which started as a streaming project before becoming a blockbuster.
Over time, Disney has gradually tracked the appeal of the live-action remake, with the metrics telling the story.
Photo: Disney
The social signals surrounding the project suggest it’s more popular than Disney had expected.
I recently joked that Lilo & Stitch won the Super Bowl before it even started, and Disney seemingly agrees.
Photo: Disney
The recent delay of Elio has little to do with the next Pixar film. Disney’s focus is on the remake instead.
By delaying Elio a week, Disney reduces box office cannibalization between the two films.
Photo: Disney
Basically, Disney expects Lilo & Stitch to run strong for at least a month based on its data.
So, it doesn’t want Elio and Lilo & Stitch fighting each other for the same movie ticket sales.
But What About Elio?
That’s the real question here. As I’ve mentioned recently with Captain America: Brave New World, Elio has been kind of a mess.
Pixar has delayed the film substantially from its initial plans. At first, Elio claimed a release date of March 1st, 2024.
Photo: Disney
Since you and I haven’t watched Elio yet, and that was a year ago, you can figure out how well the production went.
Pixar delayed Elio by more than a year to work out some kinks in the script.
Photo: Disney
Even during the marketing phase of Inside Out 2, a few journalists pointedly noted Elio’s problems.
The prevailing belief was that if Inside Out 2 missed, Pixar was in real trouble since Elio wasn’t going to be the salvation.
Photo: Disney
Well, Inside Out 2 most assuredly didn’t miss, and Pixar sounds more optimistic about Elio lately.
So, we should all be hopeful that the masters of storytelling have once again made magic by saving a struggling production.
Image: Pixar
As Deadline correctly points out, Elio is the only animated film released between March 14th and July 18th.
There’s a window here. The problem is that Elio is also ducking a different production by moving dates.
Photo: Disney
The live-action remake of another Chris Sanders movie, How to Train Your Dragon, debuts on June 13th.
Sanders, the creator and voice of Stitch, is going to have a VERY good summer.
Photo: Universal
More importantly, Disney just bailed on the competition. So, while this is good news for Lilo & Stitch, it’s a bit worrisome for Elio.
About Captain America: Brave New World
Finally, let’s quickly discuss Brave New World, which had an odd opening weekend.
When a film debuts in theaters, the studio worries about several things.
Photo: Marvel
The most important factor is the box office, and Captain America 4 aced that test with an estimated $100 million over four days.
That total slightly beats tracking, as does the global take of $192.4 million.
Photo: Marvel
For a film with an estimated budget of $180 million, this is generally good news…until we check under the hood.
Critics were wholly ambivalent about Brave New World, grading it at 51 percent after more than 200 reviews.
Photo: Marvel
That’s not the worrisome part, though. The film’s Cinemascore of B- may not sound bad, but it is nightmarish.
Cinemascore is like the professor everyone wants due to its generous grading system.
Photo: Marvel
A B+ in Cinemascore would be like a C in most instances. So, a B- is…way worse than a C.
In fact, this is the worst Cinemascore ever for an MCU title, equaling other Marvel tiles like…Dark Phoenix and 2003’s Hulk.
Photo: Marvel
Yeah, that’s not good. So, there’s cause for concern here that Brave New World may flame out quickly at the box office.
Not everything with a terrible Cinemascore does, but this is a worse performance than Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania.
Photo: Marvel
Also, that film had a better Cinemascore and similar reviews (it’s 46 percent on RT). So, Marvel is sounding some alarms here.
I will say that I personally felt Brave New World was an entertaining film…but I liked Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, too.
Photo: Marvel
I guess I’m just a Harrison Ford fan until the very end.
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