As Disney celebrated its centenary last year, behind the smiles there was anxiety. A series of the company’s signature animated films – Strange World , Encanto and Lightyear – had tanked, the live-action Mulan bombed and Marvel, which had until that point batted up a run of box-office hits, stumbled with The Marvels . The studio’s 100th birthday was a public-facing party for Hollywood’s fourth-oldest studio – only Warner Bros, Paramount and Universal are older – but in the plush-carpeted corridors of its global headquarters in Burbank, California, there was plenty of hand-wringing.
Disney CEO Bob Iger. Credit: Alisha Jucevic/Bloomberg Retired CEO Bob Iger had returned, after two years under the unsteady leadership of his replacement, Bob Chapek, who had restructured the studio, overseen a series of decisions which rattled shareholders, and demonstrated an indifference to animation, the company’s founding craft. A year later, to say Disney’s fortunes have turned around would be an understatement.
Inside Out 2 is the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, earning $US1.5 billion, double its 2015 predecessor. More significantly, the live-action Deadpool & Wolverine has crossed the $US1 billion threshold - an extraordinary result for an R-rated movie - and is hurtling towards $US1.
5 billion. A third potential player, the animated film Moana 2 , is expected to land well. Billion-dollar bosom buddies .
.. Deadpool and Wolverine.
Credit: Disney It would be easy.