Disney bombs 2x in 1 week … politics driving parents away?

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Disney just suffered to two massive setbacks this past week…and politics may have played a part.

Disney has been aggressive on politics lately such as donating to stop the California recall, campaigning for the $15 minimum wage, FBI reports of possible financial scandal involving California politicians, and their previous Chairman being a top Clinton/Obama/Biden fundraiser while hinting at a possible Presidential run himself.

Here is the bad news this week:

– The much-hyped June released series, Ms. Marvel, debuted as the WORST PERFORMING of all the Marvel Disney+ shows.   With only 775,000 views, it rates as a colossal flop with only 4% of subscribers watching it.

– The Pixar film, Lightyear, was projected to earn $135 million this weekend but only brought in $51 million making it AMONG THE WORST-EVER Pixar films to debut in its 27-year history.

These are near record breaking losses.

What makes the film Lightyear political is that Disney purged the lead actor, conservative comedian Tim Allen, from his own film.  Mr. Allen had played Buzz Lightyear for four Toy Story films spanning nearly 25 years.  Along the way, Tim Allen became more known as a conservative with the ABC show, Last Man Standing, which openly lampooned Obama and all things liberal.  Despite the shows high ratings, Disney junked the show.  When Disney produced Toy Story #4, Mr. Allen’s role, despite being the equal co-star, was diminished to the least screen time possible.  Then it came time to do a Toy Story spinoff on the life of Buzz Lightyear.   Disney rewrote the character and gave the role to someone who has been vocal on his liberal politics.   Most peculiar is that Disney explains this move as the fact that the toy is not based on the actual person.   This is absurd.   It would be like Disney making a film based upon a Mickey Mouse toy and making Mickey’s voice a raspy Scottish older man with a completely different personality.   In effect, Disney is fibbing and they just wanted to invent an excuse to drop a known conservative from their films and start over with a new franchise and a prop up a liberal actor.

Other actors noticed.  Everybody Loves Raymond Star, Patricia Heaton, tweeted to Tim Allen’s defense.

As stated, the film Lightyear, was projected to make $135 million in its opening, but stumbled at $51 million.  It even debuted at the number two spot losing out to a film already in its second week of release (Jurassic World).

This loss is even more devastating than it seems.   The last three Pixar films have all been withheld from theaters and taken directly to Disney+.   Each time Disney has done this they have lost hundreds of millions in revenue.  Disney has to do this due to the pandemic and also because of the desperate need to prop up with Disney+ service which does not have enough subscribers to generate profits.   This is why Disney+ is considering moving to an advertising channel format — something they swore they would never do.

Disney+ is also witnessing a severe slow-down in their subscriber growth.   It is a tragic financial trap they have found themselves in as they keep spending nearly a billion dollars on content but still cannot generate profits and cannot expand subscribers to reach the profit making level.

The two near-record breaking flops for Disney may signal that parents are voting with their feet and bailing out of Disney because of their politics.

Disney stock has taken a 30% drop this year.

Two of Disney’s blockbuster Marvel films last year, Eternals and Back Widow, both lost money.

Disney is losing customers and may wish to revisit the role politics play in their programs.