Disney Keeps Making Political Movies And They Keep Flopping
Disney is in trouble.
"Strange World," the latest film from the legendary animation studio, has become a historic flop.
This now marks a second consecutive failure from Disney, after "Lightyear" resulted in a disastrous financial loss for the company.
"Strange World" reportedly cost $180 million to produce, yet made just $24 million domestically over the long Thanksgiving weekend.
That was well below expectations, which ranged from $40-50 million.
"Strange World" also happened to be one of Disney's most overtly political films, with several prominent messages repeated throughout.
Most notably, the film prominently features a gay teenager as a main character. But it goes further than that.
Vulture helpfully summarized how important political messaging is to the film, saying it was an "environmentally focused adventure featuring a queer Black teenager."
Sounds exactly like what parents want to take their kids to see, doesn't it?
Undoubtedly, liberal media sources will take a page from the Billy Eichner playbook and blame "straight people" for the movie's failure.
READ: BILLY EICHNER BLAMES ‘STRAIGHT PEOPLE’ AFTER ‘BROS’ MOVIE BOMBS
In reality, this is just the latest in a series of missteps from Disney's corporate leadership.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 30: Bob Chapek, (L) Walt Disney Company CEO and Bob Iger, Executive Chairman of Walt Disney Company speak during "The World's Most Magical Celebration" Walt Disney World Resort 50th Anniversary at Magic Kingdom on September 30, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images)
Disney Virtue Signaling Hurts Bottom Line
Disney's obsessive focus on inserting itself into political debates has come at the expense of the company's success.
Their most recent earnings were disastrous, thanks in no small part to a public fight with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Naturally, Disney bought into misinformation about the Parental Rights in Education bill and advocated to overturn the law.
As a result of the poor performance, the board decided just recently to replace Bob Chapek with former CEO Bob Iger.
The company fired Gina Carano from "The Mandalorian" for supposedly inappropriate remarks, but let star Pedro Pascal remain despite making similar comments.
That led to a campaign to cancel Disney+ and helped propel upstart film production company competition.
"Lightyear" and "Strange World" both injected political themes into children's movies.
They both flopped.
Lead actors from important franchises are openly commenting on diversity casting instead of story and character.
READ: MARVEL ACTOR PUSHES BACK AT QUENTIN TARANTINO, SAYS CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD WAS ‘WHITE AS HELL’
Hollywood Focused on Wrong Things
Their focus is, like most of Hollywood, on entirely the wrong things.
Movies, especially animated films from Disney, are about entertainment.
They should engage audiences, make them laugh, allow them to escape the realities of life. Disney's early days were spent making fantasies. Escapist entertainment like "Snow White," "Pinocchio" seamlessly transitioned to "Beauty and the Beast" and "Little Mermaid."
But now it appears the focus is more on creating characters to meet self-imposed quotas.
Parents see through these attempts, and obviously realize that many of these subjects are issues they want to discuss privately.
Teachers have also interjected themselves into familial discussions, and faced similar backlash.
Disney has now lost hundreds of millions on "Lightyear" and "Strange World."
This latest movie also received the lowest audience score in Disney's recent history.
How much longer will Disney continue to put politics over entertainment? How many more millions will it take for them, and Hollywood at large, to realize the error of their ways?
Disney and the industry face an uphill battle with near unanimous support for woke politics among their employees.
Now they'll have to decide if placating Gen Z is worth tanking their financial future. Based on their track record to this point, it's going to be a tough decision.