Are their air quotes around lose?
Also, maybe, just maybe, had Disney not fired their creative talent after the pandemic in a cost savings binge they would have had the people I'm place to protect those films.
Also they could have paid the writers their fair share from the start but where's the profit in that?
No those are legit losses. They really blew their wad on bad choices...
Their 4 highest grossing films in the US so far were:
Guardians 3
The Little Mermaid
Antman and Wasp: The Search For More Money
Indiana Jones and The Quest For Harrison Ford to Kill Our Childhoods
(numbers 4, 6, 8 and 12 respectively in US BO so far)
Of those films this is how it breaks down:
Guardians 3 made $845 million on $250 million budget
The Little Mermaid made $569 million on a $250 million budget
Antman and Wasp made $476 million on a $200 million budget
Indiana Jones made $383 million worldwide on a $300 million dollar budget (how does an Indy film cost more than GOTG 3 or Antman and Wasp?)
Now by basic numbers that looks not so bad every movie "made" money. Except they didn't. By most accounting metrics because of how splits with theaters and advertising budgets go you need to
at least double the budget to actually get a movie into the black. (according to some experts on blockbusters it is actually 2.5x but we will stick with 2x to be fair)
So using those figures Indy was an anchor that offset the gains GOTG 3 had and the other 2 barely made a profit. And remember, these were their big earners, the top films they had and they basically broke even on them when all was said and done. Those should be the films that make sure Di$ney is profitable but they so overspent on them that they dug themselves a huge hole. Then you add in The Marvels bombing on a $219 million budget (it is tracking to
maybe hit $300 million WW), Haunted Mansion bombing HARD, A Haunting in Venice and the Boogeyman barely breaking even WW...and so on. I mean think about this the film Chevalier cost $46 million and made less than 10% of that WW.
This is the same issue that WBD is in because when AT&T owned WB they spent $250 million on every movie they could and never made enough to pay themselves back. (a $500 million dollar return on a $250 million investment is essentially worthless since you broke even) They keep assuming the next film will be the huge hit that fills the coffers but never take into account that the films might fail and the red ink is piling up. Its like people who figure out their spending budget based on their gross salary and never take into account taxes or bills or whatever and then wonder why they are broke. Its ridiculous.
I feel bad for ESPN workers cause they are gonna be fired to make up for this loss. That is all Di$ney ever does...they will continue to burn money on Star Wars content that makes them almost no cash or Marvel content with diminishing returns and use ESPN or ABC as a way to hide the red ink. Then they will give Bob Iger another raise and double his bonus and let him continue to let the Titanic hit an iceberg and leave someone else holding the bag in 2025 when he leaves.