Disney has had an issue in the past 5 years with not being able to produce popular original movies. Meaning movies that are not based on a former Disney project, like sequels or remakes of older movies, or based on real life or a book.
For this blog, I went through and collected data on movies released by Walt Disney Pictures from the last 5 years, since 2020. This excludes movies like Marvel or 20th Century Fox, but does include Pixar as they are released under WDP.
Since 2020, Walt Disney Pictures has released 58 films in theaters and on streaming. Out of those 58 films, only 22 were original ideas. And out of those 22 movies, only 6 had theatrical releases. Those 6 movies were all animated, with half being Pixar films, but all were animated.
While Encanto, one of the theatrically released films, the other 5 did not get much critical acclaim and, in fact, it received more criticism than positive reviews. I personally find a lot to love about 4 of these movies I’ve seen. But the public yearns for more from Disney creatively, and we can see the results through the public reactions to Wish.
Disney planned on making Wish their next big princess movie, but unfortunately, it fell quite flat commercially compared to their last successful princess Moana. With most of the criticism being around the general storyline and lack of catchy music, it lacks the Lin-Manuel Miranda sparkle we have gotten used to.
Comparing numbers alone, Wish made around $255 million worldwide while Moana made $643.3 million worldwide. This could be due to a number of factors, like the economic state of the world at the time, marketing, or failure to appeal to families.
Because of the general failure of their most recent original ideas, Disney has pivoted to focusing on remaking what they have already succeeded at. While it is a great money grab, it lacks the magic that an original Disney film has, and shows that they are lacking in good ideas that they know will be successful.
I’m not saying that it is easy to have an original idea; much art nowadays is struggling with this issue, and it is not just Disney. But to see a company that for decades has dominated what it means to have a thriving imagination fall so flat is sad.
As of right now, Walt Disney Pictures has around 10 productions currently in the works that have tentative release dates, and only 3 of those are original. Hopper’s a Pixar Film to be released in Spring 2026, Hexed to be released in Fall 2026, and Gatto’s a Pixar film to be released in Summer 2027.
I have hope for these projects and for the future of Disney original movies as a whole. But with the direction that the company is going, I hope that they start to release that what the people want isn’t something that is regurgitated over and over again. We want something with that signature Disney magic that we know they can release.