Disney Will Rely on Branding at the Movies This Year
The box office results are in for 2025, and we finally know how Disney performed.
Throughout North America, cineplexes earned $9.05 billion, more than a quarter of it thanks to Disney.
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Your favorite company grossed $2.49 billion at the North American box office.
Remarkably, the company has even bigger ambitions for 2026, and the key to all these plans is its franchises.
(Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
Here’s how Disney will rely on branding at the movies this year.
You May Hate It, but Bob Iger Was Right
Bob Iger became Disney’s CEO in 2005 and immediately committed to branding as his calling card.
The Disney CEO believed that the best strategy at Disney Entertainment called for a healthy mix of titles.
Disney
Iger knew that his company needed original stories to sustain its popularity.
However, he was also acutely aware that sequels, remakes, and reboots earn exponentially more money.
While everyone complains about the dearth of new content, films like Wish, Elio, and Strange World prove that original IP is a dicey proposition.
Not coincidentally, Disney’s 2026 lineup leans hard into existing intellectual properties.
Photo: Disney
I previously talked about the movie schedule, evaluating all 13 films.
Let’s be honest that not all films are created equal, though.
Photo: Pixar
Last year, I had to talk about The Amateur in the same breath as Avatar: Fire and Ash.
The Amateur performed okay, all things considered, but it earned just $96 million.
Photo: Wikimedia
In 2026, that puts it on the same level as titles such as Send Help and Psycho Killers.
We should not discuss them alongside The Mandalorian & Grogu, Toy Story 5, and the live-action remake of Moana.
There’s a readily apparent difference in scale between these projects. That’s the key to Disney’s entire 2026 slate.
In a perfect world, Pixar will return to prominence with Hoppers, while Disney will excel with Hexed.
Scenes from Disney’s live-action MOANA. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
These titles are huge risks, though, and that’s before we discuss expensive swings such as Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars.
Disney needs its four major branded titles to excel at the box office to end its continued slump of the 2020s.
The weird part is that Disney is doing objectively better than everyone else, yet it’s not happy with the results.
So, let’s quickly evaluate each of those four tentpole titles.
‘Moana’
I’m listing the big four in ascending order based on how much they matter to Disney.
Since Moana 2 just finished with more than a billion dollars, Disney is effectively freerolling with its live-action remake.
Photo: Disney
Still, with a presumed budget of $200 million, this version of the story is a big swing.
Disney is counting on something you may not know.
Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
According to Entertainment Strategy Guy, Moana is the second most watched film ever on streaming.
Currently, Moana even claims a sizable gap over KPop Demon Hunters and trails only Encanto.
American viewers have watched nearly one billion hours of those two titles since Nielsen started tracking streaming ratings.
On a seemingly unrelated note, Disney is currently working on Encanto 2.
Photo: vecteezy.com
Anyway, the point is that people are intimately familiar with the story of Moana as much as any animated film ever.
Disney will be disappointed if this one fails to earn $1 billion, but there is some risk here.
Photo: Wikimedia
We’re only ten years removed from the original film and 18 months from its sequel, so it’s very early in the process to be doing a remake.
Disney had to act quickly while Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was still capable of playing the live-action Maui.
If nothing else, we’re going to get a ten-years-later soundtrack update that should sell plenty of tickets on its own.
‘Toy Story 5’
Pixar
I won’t say that little is riding on Toy Story 5, but let’s be real here.
This franchise borders on Too Big to Fail territory due to its popularity, which is the whole point of Bob Iger’s box office philosophy.
Pixar
If you had a button you could push to guarantee you a billion dollars, you’d push it, too.
Disney has even caught a break, as Toy Story 5 has a reason to exist.
Disney
I wouldn’t say the same about Toy Story 4, even though I loved it. Its plot was borderline nonexistent.
You can try to prove me wrong by telling me the story right now.
“Forky” is not an acceptable answer.
With Toy Story 5, analog toys must face the grim reality of a digital future.
Photo: Pixar
That’s an even better existential threat than the contrived one of Toy Story 3.
I don’t say this often, but I’d be stunned if Toy Story 5 failed. In fact, I expect it to be one of the top three releases of 2026.
‘Avengers: Doomsday’
Photo: Disney
Can the MCU survive if Avengers: Doomsday disappoints?
Of course it will.
We’re 30 plus stories into this universe now, and a loyal fanbase will support it no matter what.
However, everyone else has acted iffy about the MCU lately, as demonstrated by the fact that the studio’s three releases in 2025 earned less than Black Panther on its own.
The reality is that Disney started the marketing campaign for Avengers: Doomsday during the first week of Avatar: Fire and Ash.
The four teasers released so far have earned more than a billion views, suggesting that society is ready to forgive and forget as long as Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans are involved.
Marvel
Since 2016, Disney has been trying to sell an inferior version of The Avengers as the real deal.
The company is now tacitly acknowledging its mistake, and I suspect all will be forgiven.
Photo:Disneycoupon.jpg
This brand has really been through it lately, but it’s the most popular franchise in film history for a reason.
So, Disney is rightfully expecting at least $1.5 billion, with $2 billion a distinct possibility.
‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’
The Mandalorian & Grogu
My wife and I had an extended debate about which one of these last two movies is Disney’s primary concern.
Since she’s night and day smarter than me, I’m allowing for the possibility that I’m getting this one wrong.
The Mandalorian & Grogu
However, I feel strongly that Disney can survive Avengers: Doomsday just being okay.
For all the griping about recent MCU films, people still keep going to see them enough that Disney can make them financially viable.
The Mandalorian & Grogu
The studio would need to cut some budgets, which isn’t ideal, but it’s manageable.
Meanwhile, we’ve officially entered year eight without a Star Wars theatrical release.
(Todd Williamson/Getty Images)
That one was Solo: A Star Wars Story, which even Kathleen Kennedy recently acknowledged was a mistake.
You could argue it was a franchise-killing mistake, at least in the short term.
Disney pivoted to Star Wars streaming content instead, with similarly lackluster results.
Star Wars on Disney+ has two unequivocal success stories: Andor and Baby Yoda.
Technically, the Baby Yoda show is called The Mandalorian, but c’mon. We all know who the star is.
Grogu may be Disney’s most marketable character since R2-D2, and I mean that sincerely.
Image: Lucasfilm
So, the studio has wisely put all its eggs in the basket of The Mandalorian & Grogu.
During Kathleen Kennedy’s Lucasfilm exit interview on Deadline, she acknowledged that several other Star Wars films are in the offing, with Star Wars: Starfighter following in May 2027.
Photo: Lucasfilm
You do NOT want to be the marketing people in charge of that project if The Mandalorian & Grogu fails.
Fortunately, I don’t see that happening, as The Mandalorian & Grogu feels like the biggest sure thing the franchise has had since Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
I’m not saying this film will earn $2 billion, but I’m also not saying it won’t.
If Disney is going to bet on branding, Star Wars plus Baby Yoda seems like the most lucrative possibility.
Photo: MickeyBlog
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