The Sunday Mail
DISNEY has become the first film studio to take US$7 billio (£5.7 billion) in global ticket sales in a year, with Star Wars spin-off Rogue One joining the hit factory production line alongside Marvel superheroes and animated children’s movies.
With “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”, the spin-off tale of the mission to steal the plans for the Death Star, taking almost US$300 million (£323 million) globally on its opening weekend, Disney has easily shot past the previous $6,9 billion annual ticket sales record set by rival Universal last year with hits including Jurassic World and Furious 7.
With almost one week of the year left, the momentum generated by the most famous sci-fi franchise in the world and the popularity of the studio’s animated film “Moana” (US$282 million and counting) is likely to push Disney’s overall takings closer to US$8 billion.
Disney has already released the four top-grossing films of the year so far with “Captain America: Civil War”, “Finding Dory” and “Zootopia” taking more than US$1 billion at the global box office, while a live-action version of “The Jungle Book” fell just short. “Doctor Strange”, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, released in November, has made more than US$650 million to date.
The record haul is the crowning achievement of a decade long strategy to reinvigorate Disney’s film division by buying up blockbuster franchises, characters and talent.
In 2006, Disney spent US$7,4 billion buying Apple founder Steve Jobs’ Pixar, the hit factory behind “Finding Nemo”, its sequel “Finding Dory”, “Toy Story” and “The Incredibles”, to help revive its once proud tradition of producing hit animated films.
This was followed in 2009 by the surprise US$4 billion purchase of Marvel Comics’ superhero universe, bringing in characters including X-Men, Iron Man and Captain America, which took Disney into new live action territory.
The third transformational deal was snapping up George Lucas’ Lucasfilm, maker of “Star Wars” and the “Indiana Jones” franchises, in a US$4 billion deal in 2012, with a plan to vastly expand the sci-fi franchise starting with 2015’s “The Force Awakens”.
The US$15 billion of deals, which were in each case criticised by City investors as overpriced, were the brainchild of Bob Iger, Walt Disney chief executive.
“It was almost standard practice to say five and 10 years ago that Disney overpaid, but you see from the performance of the films from those divisions that they were essential to the company’s success,” says Guy Bisson, research director at Ampere Analysis.
When Iger took the helm in 2005 Disney was still licking its wounds, having fought off a hostile takeover attempt by cable TV company Comcast, which went on to take a stake in studio MGM and buy NBC Universal and DreamWorks. Its animation-led film operation was struggling. That year the company managed to get just one film in the global top 10, “The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion”, the Witch and the Wardrobe. And its studio was ranked fourth among the top five in the world’s biggest market, the US.
Fast-forward to 2016 and Disney accounts for five of the top 10 grossing films this year. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has been Disney’s single biggest hit, raking in US$2,07 billion, spread across two calendar years of box office takings as it launched in December 2015. “Rogue One” looks set to also break US$1 billion but will also see its box office take split across two calendar years.
“Management had a vision that proved to be correct,” says Bisson. “They focused on strong characters that work across all their business lines, toys, merchandising and theme parks; and it has been very advantageous that the franchises breathe sequels and spin-offs very naturally, and they are also very popular among the key audiences of millennials and the younger generation.”
Disney is currently constructing a Star Wars Land at its flagship US theme parks, which will include a ride where visitors take control of the Millennium Falcon, and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which spawned the Johnny Depp mega-franchise, has recently been expanded to its Shanghai Disneyland.
Another Disney blockbuster, “Frozen”, is reportedly the biggest merchandise money spinner of all time, with sales of more than US$107 billion.
Hollywood’s movie secret, which Disney happens to have mastered the best, at least for now, is that bigger is better and less is more.
In 2005, the top five studios released 173 films, with Disney launching 31, according to Box Office Mojo. In 2016 that number has dropped to 118, with Disney down 60 percent with just 13.
“Since the financial crash studios had to rework the way they did things and cut their slates back,” says David Hancock, director, head of film and cinema, at IHS Markit. “Very few, very big films drive the box office upwards.”
The question is whether, or how long, Disney can keep its box office crown. The studio will get a running start with about two-thirds of Rogue One’s global ticket sales counting towards next year’s tally.
And with big titles including the second “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” and “Thor: Ragnarok”, Disney is banking on another sequel-tastic year of blockbusters.
The 65-year old Iger, whose contract at Disney runs until 2018, will also be looking to the force for box office gold next year.
Disney will be banking on once again trouncing rivals with the hope that “Star Wars: Episode VIII” will join just “Avatar”, “Titanic” and “The Force Awakens” in the exclusive US$2 billion plus box office club.
“The next film in the Star Wars saga has the potential to claim the title as the biggest movie of all time,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a film analyst with comScore. The Guardian
