There wasn't a lot of Walt Disney(NYSE: DIS) content consumed at the local multiplex over the past weekend. The media giant that has dominated the box office this year didn't put out any of the eight largest draws. You have to work your way down to the the ninth spot, where A Real Pain -- put out by Disney's Searchlight Pictures -- took in a meager $2.3 million in ticket sales despite expanding to more screens.
This week should be worse for Disney. Rival studios are premiering Wicked and Gladiator II this week, two highly anticipated films that should catapult to the top of this weekend's box office tallies.
Disney stock soared to a six-month high last week after posting blowout financial results. A huge summer for its theatrical releases helped fuel its strong quarterly results.
Has the House of Mouse lost its touch? Are we back to last year's concerns that Disney no longer has its pulse on what moviegoers want to see? No and no. Patience pays off, and Disney still should end 2024 with four of the year's six highest-grossing movies.
Putting the pop in popcorn
Let's play down the fact that Disney is lacking a blockbuster in theaters right now. It still has this year's two largest draws in Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine. Those two summer hits broke domestic records. Inside Out 2 is now both the highest-grossing animated film of all time and the top PG-rated release. Deadpool & Wolverine set a new high-water mark for R-rated releases. All the higher lifetime grosses have been slapped with PG-13 ratings.
As for A Real Pain's poor showing, indie films don't tend to fare well on the silver screen. The ones that do succeed tend to do over time as word of mouth turn them into cult faves. Disney itself didn't make the movie. It fared well at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and Disney's Searchlight was the highest bidder to distribute the Jesse Eisenberg-helmed flick.
One last note: Venom: The Last Dance was the top draw for the first three weekends since its late-October debut. It was only knocked down to second place this past weekend. Sony(NYSE: SONY) is the studio behind the superhero movie, but it is based on a Disney-owned Marvel franchise. Put another way, Disney is still making money from that well-performing autumn release.
Image source: Getty Images.
It should be a fairy-tale finish
Disney investors aren't worried. The studio largely took the seasonally slow fall season off. It's gearing up for two films that will roll out in the coming weeks that should be among the biggest holiday season releases.
Moana 2 hits theaters next week. The project was originally started as a Disney+ series, but executives were so impressed with the initial work that they shifted it into a full-length theatrical animation release.
Audience demand won't be a problem. Disney saw the first trailer promoting the film reach 200 million views within its first day of availability, a new record for a Disney animated film. With Disney working on a live-action Moana for the summer of 2026, you can be sure that it will do anything it can to make sure that the sequel to the 2016 original is a success.
Next month, it should be Mufasa: The Lion King as the king of the box office hill. Boobirds may argue that Disney needs more original properties than just leaning on its established franchises, but all 10 of this year's highest-grossing films are sequels. By the end of this year, only Wicked will be one of the 13 biggest releases to not be a sequel.
Disney knows what it's doing. The media stock has the perfect ecosystem to make its biggest releases shine. It can promote new releases through its theme parks, as well as its network and streaming products. Disney shares are rolling right now -- and soon so will the multiplex audiences flocking to its big holiday releases.
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Rick Munarriz has positions in Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
