How Disney became the only name in the Box Office.
“Frozen”. “The Avengers”. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. These movies are cultural touchstones for the 2010’s. Through them, Disney has spent the last decade absolutely dominating the cultural zeitgeist. You can’t scroll through Twitter without finding excitement over the next Disney movie. One might think marketing is the secret to Disney’s unprecedented success, but it’s actually through textbook application of free market principles.
Disney always had an outsized influence on childhood. Through their toys, TV channel, etc., it’s hard to find a child who hasn’t seen at least one Disney movie. The centerpiece of this monopoly came through animation. Disney famously created the first full length animated feature, “Snow White”, in 1937, and has remained the dominant force in animation, often adapting classic fairy tales to great success. This success culminated in the Disney Princess line, a reliable source of young girls’ programming.
Despite their success, Disney had little luck creating a property that was a consistent hit with young boys. That changed in 2009, when Disney spent 4 billion dollars to buy Marvel. Marvel was another legendary creative company, whose superheroes had thrilled children for decades. Disney bought Marvel as they embarked on their most audacious project.
The previous year, Marvel Studios launched it’s debut film, “Iron Man”, to success, and planned to produce films for The Hulk, Captain America, and Thor; culminating in a crossover movie, “The Avengers”. “The Avengers” went on to become the 3rd highest grossing film in history at the time, justifying Disney’s purchase. Through Marvel, Disney finally had a boys’ franchise.
Next, Disney purchased Lucasfilms, and with Lucasfilms came Star Wars. Disney now owned arguably the most iconic film franchise of all time, and immediately started to rehabilitate its’ image following the mixed response to the Star Wars Prequels. The resulting films have been resounding successes, with 3 of the 4 being billion dollar hits.
Disney didn’t forget their original properties. Pixar continued to sustain its’ success through movies like “Inside Out” and “Coco”. Disney Animation entered a 3D based renaissance phase. Additionally, Disney created a major movie line through live action adaptations of their most iconic movies.
Today, Disney Animation, Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel, and the remakes are all money makers. In 2016, four of these five properties had a billion dollar film, and the other earned a paltry 966 million. In 2018, the worst performing Disney film made 100 million dollars globally. Since 2010, Disney has had 17 films break 1 billion dollars, just shy of half of the 36 films to hit that mark ever.
To put this commercial success in context, Disney in 2008 earned about 10% of the domestic box office. In 2018, Disney earned 38% of the domestic box office, earning around 3 billion dollars. Such box office dominance is only poised to expand with the recent acquisition of 21st Century Fox and the launching of Disney+ to compete with its’ only serious competitors, Netflix and Warner Brothers.
The elephant in the room is that Disney wouldn’t be breaking these financial records if they were putting out a poor product. Instead, Disney has produced critical triumph after critical triumph. Not a single MCU film has earned a Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes. Pixar had multiple films this decade alone surpass the highest grossing animated film of all time. Disney Animation has put out massive hits such as “Moana” and “Frozen”. Disney movie have managed to create cultural moments around them, telling affecting stories, and using an unparalleled marketing machine to ensure awareness of their films.
With movie tickets becoming increasingly expensive, and movie viewership hitting historic lows, Disney has managed to thrive because it understood the basic principles of economics: If you have a quality product that people feel is a necessity to have or experience, then people will buy your product consistently. Disney has banked on its’ reputation for consistently entertaining films from recognizable franchises, adapted those franchises to meet market demands and trends, and responded to market demand for availability. In doing so, Disney became the dominant company in pop culture. 2019’s slate of Disney films looks to be its’ most ambitious yet, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney has its’ most profitable year yet.
Christian Thrailkill is a graduate of Southern Methodist University, musician, and columnist. He lives in Dallas, Texas.
