At the end of the first act of Hamilton, Aaron Burr sings to Alexander Hamilton, “Every proclamation guarantees free ammunition for your enemies,” in Non-Stop. For The Walt Disney Company, it’s not necessarily their proclamations but their continued theatrical failures that give further ammunition to the people who believe that Disney has gone “woke.”
Ever since the feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis started, a segment of the population has been waiting for Disney’s downfall. Using the phrase “go woke, go broke,” many conservatives have watched with glee as Disney’s recent films have crashed at the box office.
It started in 2022 when Disney Animation Studios released Strange World and Pixar Studios released Lightyear. Disney chose to include LGBTQ+ characters in both films. The two movies combined lost $300 million for Disney. Critics celebrated Disney’s demise with the box office disasters, and 2023 only worsened.
As the feud with Florida Gov Ron DeSantis continued, Disney’s critics dug in and refused to support anything Disney did. The Washington Examiner ran a poll that showed 40 percent of the country disapproved of Disney, while only 50 percent approved. That is a large segment of the population for Disney to lose.
Related: Disney is Accused of Being ‘Woke’ What Exactly Does That Mean?
This year brought even more controversy for Disney.
As Walt Disney Studios tried to include a more diverse cast of characters, critics pounced when it was announced that Halle Bailey, who is African American, would be portraying the fictional mermaid Ariel in the live-action version of The Little Mermaid (2023). Disney also announced that Rachel Zegler, who is Latina, would be playing Snow White in the live-action version of Snow White (2025).
While The Little Mermaid barely broke even, Snow White has been plagued by controversy and has been delayed until 2025 as Disney CEO Bob Iger tries to figure out what to do with the movie. Disney also dealt with less “woke” flops with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) and Haunted Mansion (2023).
The latest film in the MCU, The Marvels (2023), had the worst opening weekend for any Marvel Studios release, with $46 million at the box office, and had the most significant second-weekend drop for any Marvel film at 80 percent. The Marvels is still 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 Movies Are Failing, Can Iger Save Them?
These continued flops have helped fuel the conservative narrative that Disney went “woke” and is now going broke. While it’s true that Disney’s recent films have bombed at the box office, the Walt Disney Company is far from “going broke.” Across all of its businesses, Disney grossed $22.3 billion in the third quarter of 2023. That seems pretty far from “broke.”
But even those who complained that Disney should return to its “traditional” storylines weren’t satisfied with its latest offering, Wish (2023). Wish managed only $31.7 million in its opening weekend, good enough for third place over Thanksgiving weekend.
Despite the best attempts of conservatives, Disney will not be broke anytime soon, even if all of their movies fail. The downfall probably had more to do with the quality of the films rather than Disney’s “wokeness.” But each failure fuels the narrative, and it will continue until Disney breaks that streak.
Disney isn’t woke. At least, it’s no more woke than any other Hollywood studio, or Fortune 500 company for that matter. Disney’s recent box office failures have been due to past COVID residual factors. The rest of Hollywood has struggled, too. Yes, there were a few big hits last year (such as Barbie) but, not like the past. As for Disney’s success as a company, it’s profitable and doing very well in other areas like theme parks and cruise ships.