Disney Headlines for December 30th, 2025
Hello and welcome to the final batch of Disney Headlines for 2025!
As MickeyBlog has been recapping in our End-of-year lists, 2025 has been fascinating.
Tree of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Even now, we’re closing out the year with some muckraking about the Tree of Life.
Not all Disney Headlines are honest ones. Let’s discuss the latest nonsense.
Welcome to the Slow Season
The end of the year is the slow season for most businesses.
The Walt Disney Company is the rare exception to this fact, and it’s great for clickbait anyway.
So, you can understand why somebody would take the low-hanging fruit here.
In this case, it’s grossly misleading even by clickbait standards, though.
Tree of Life
Here’s the story, which I will quickly summarize. That’s the New York Post trolling for bait.
No, that’s not unusual for this particular organization, but even they seemed to feel bad about this one.
Tree of Life
The claim HEAVILY implies that Disney’s Animal Kingdom is about to demolish the Tree of Life.
I’m guessing you either panicked or guffawed at the thought of that. And here’s the shocking part!
This report suggests that the demolition will happen before the end of 2025!
Yup, gullible readers of the New York Post are apparently counting down the days.
Kablooey?
Photo: Pexel.com
They seem to think that Disney will just explode an iconic landmark between Christmas and New Year’s.
The scary part? Some of these people vote! Okay, I’m being a lot more condescending than usual.
This one irked me, though, because people like me are the ones who clean up these messes.
Some poor unfortunate soul honestly believes that the Tree of Life won’t see 2026 at Animal Kingdom.
In case that person is reading, I’d like to assure you that the Animal Kingdom icon isn’t going anywhere.
This is one of those twisted half-truth stories that leads with an impossible scenario.
Then, those who read further learn that it’s all hot, wet garbage, the worst kind of garbage.
In this case, Disney routinely files Animal Kingdom permits along these lines for the Tree of Life.
Since it’s an artificial structure – you knew that, right? – and not that accessible, that’s how Disney describes the process.
On the paperwork, it sounds like a gigantic, tree-smashing explosion. In practice, it’s like a modest pruning.
Animal Kingdom
So, don’t worry, everyone! When the calendar turns to 2026, many changes will come to the park.
However, the Tree of Life will remain steadfast and true as the best picture-taking spot.
Everything is fine, and this story wasn’t just ridiculous. It smacked of desperation. Somebody must have had a holiday quota to meet or something.
Disney’s Strange Box Office Week
Getty
As usual, one of the biggest stories of the holiday week is happening at movie theaters.
We call this the Twelve Days of Box Office because everyone has so much free time due to the holidays.
(Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
So, many folks give movies a chance, some of them going to a theater for the only time all year.
This sudden influx of infrequent movie-goers is what causes massive spikes in box office.
Photo: 21st Century Fox
Not coincidentally, Disney always makes sure to have a couple of tentpole movies in theaters.
Since most people have at least some vacation time, they can slot in a movie or two.
Photo: 21st Century Fox
That’s even true of a 195-minute opus like Avatar: Fire & Ash, which is performing solidly.
It’s not quite on the same level as Avatar: The Way of Water, but it’s holding steady nonetheless.
Photo: 21st Century Fox
That was never a reasonable comparison anyway, as we went 13 years between Avatar movies.
When a new one arrived, demand understandably skyrocketed for something so visually stimulating.
Photo: 21st Century Fox
Now that we’re getting another three-hour Avatar movie three years later, the excitement is a bit more muted.
I touched on this a bit last week, but there are still plenty of unknowns here.
Photo: 21st Century Fox
Currently, Avatar: Fire & Ash has been the number one movie of the holiday season by a good bit.
Importantly, Christmas Day claimed the biggest box office for this date since the 2010s. So, James Cameron’s latest film is understandably doing well…just not AS well.
Photo: 21st Century Fox
As proof, consider that the film had earned more than $150 million through Christmas Day.
That’s impressive until you consider that The Way of Water had reached $261 million by that point.
What’s ‘Ella McCay’?
The discrepancy is that Avatar 2 had three more late-December days included in its total. Still, there is a box office gap.
After ten days in theaters, Fire & Ash has grossed $217.4 million domestically and $760.4 million worldwide.
Photo: Getty
The third Avatar movie was always a slam dunk to cross $1 billion, which will probably happen around Friday.
The question is by how much. That’s yet to be determined, but we’ll know a lot by mid-January.
Photo: Wikimedia
As I previously noted, that’s when Disney will make a call on Avatar 4 and 5.
However, the studio already did that for Ella McCay, which Justin Hermes discussed earlier.
Photo: 20th Century
Disney absolutely punted this film, cancelling its theatrical release in France.
Why did this happen? Well, for eight straight days, the film averaged less than $100 per theater.
Photo: Disney
On Christmas Eve, Ella McCay’s per-venue average was $18 for the entire day.
How bad is that? Well, if my wife and I had gone to see it that day, we would have more than doubled the average.
Ella McCay will hit theaters on December 12. Photo: 20th Century Studios
You can see how shockingly terrible that is, right? Obviously, we didn’t go. Nobody did.
The terrible reviews tanked any hope this very slight film had, which probably makes you wonder.
Photo: Disney
How did this one get made? Well, there’s an obvious, albeit unconfirmed explanation.
Disney almost assuredly made this movie in exchange for James L. Brooks signing off on The Simpsons Movie 2.
Photo: Disney
So, credit the director for driving a hard bargain to get his passion project made.
Unfortunately, Ella McCay is just a punchline from now on, though. $18 per theater!
Photo: Disney
You probably bought a holiday gift card for somebody that cost more than that!
Photo: MickeyBlog
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Feature Photo: Disney
