Ever since former Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, known by its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the relationship between the Walt Disney Company and conservative America has been tense, to say the least. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has stoked this tension as he tours the country seeking the Republican nomination for President by accusing Disney of “sexualizing and indoctrinating children.”
Related: Disney Accused of Being ‘Woke’ What Exactly Does That Mean?
Conservative pundits frequently point to Disney having “gone woke” as their primary complaint. The term, however, lacks a specific meaning but has become the generic saying for any changes Disney makes that they disagree with, including LGBTQ+ characters or substituting people of color for traditionally white fictional characters.
Over the past two years, Disney has given these online voices more to fight as the company has attempted to be more inclusive in its films and television shows. But when these new products have been met with apathy by the public, Disney has been met with the conservative battlecry, “go woke, go broke.”
And this weekend, Disney and Marvel Studios gave their critics more ammunition with their latest flop.
‘The Marvels’
The Marvels (2023) is Disney’s latest film to have a record-breaking opening weekend, but not the kind of record that Disney and Marvel would like to have. The Marvels was ground-breaking for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is the first movie led by an entirely female cast with Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani. Director Nia DaCosta is the first African-American woman to director a film in the MCU.
Related: Disney Getting Clobbered At the Box Office Again.
But the film crashed at the box office. The Marvels brought in $46.1 million, the lowest opening weekend box office total for a Disney Marvel film, surpassing Ant-Man (2015), which opened at $57.2 million. The Marvels had a budget of $220 million and now can become the third Disney film this year to lose more than $100 million, joining Haunted Mansion (2023) and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).
And with Disney’s latest failures, conservatives took to X (formerly Twitter) to once again bash the Walt Disney Company for its “wokeness” and proclaim that it would be that wokeness that would cause Disney to go broke.
One pundit said on X:
Disney’s latest release, The Marvels, is a box office flop, and another woke creation by Disney. Once again @Disney has pushed a female dominated cast onto the audience, and the failure has been spectacular.
Every. Single. Time. pic.twitter.com/s0WApDGaaC
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 12, 2023
‘Go Woke, Go Broke’
First and foremost, the Walt Disney Company is far from going broke. The actual numbers don’t support that at all. However, Disney has recently had a string of flops at the box office. Beginning last year with Strange World (2022) and Lightyear (2022), and continuing this year with The Marvels, Haunted Mansion, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which is virtually impossible to say is a “woke” movie.
Related: Disney Learns Billion Dollar Lesson: ‘They’ve Got to Cut’
This argument overlooks some of the Disney/Pixar/Marvel films that were considered “woke” that did well at the box office, including Elemental (2023), The Little Mermaid (2023), and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). But that would require a deep dive into the subtle nuances of the film-going audience and their fickle likes and dislikes. And this argument seemingly doesn’t have room for subtle nuances.
Even Disney CEO Bob Iger admits that some of Disney’s recent releases have not been great, and Disney is switching its focus to less but better films. They recently announced the delay of several of their upcoming blockbuster movies, including Deadpool 3 and Captain America: Brave New World.
But while conservatives don’t appreciate Disney’s new direction, Wall Street and theme park guests don’t seem to mind that much. So, while corporate America dips its toes into the social issues pool, Disney will still have to fight the perception that “wokeness” is ruining the company rather than the dozens of complex factors that could be behind this fall.
We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.
it is interesting that gilzean is payig himslef the biggest slary he has ever made…and ths is tax payer money he is helping him self to