Disney's Over-Reliance on Sequels
Disney has long been seen as a global entertainment powerhouse, but their upcoming animated film lineup proves that it has developed a sequel problem. Having so many successful properties under its belt, including Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm, Disney has long dominated in the entertainment space. The name of the studio has become synonymous with top-tier storytelling and innovation, but its vision for the future has recently come into question.
Riley is celebrating her 13th birthday with her parents in Inside Out 2.
Disney has not proven to be able to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of the entertainment industry, and it is unclear whether their massive brand recognition will allow them to continue being a key player in the space. It is crucial for Disney to focus on developing a well-constructed vision for the future that can secure its place as a studio that fully understands its audience. This requires Disney to go back to the drawing board and analyze some of the mistakes of the past few years to adjust for the future. However, it appears that the studio is, instead, choosing to return to its roots and generate numerous sequels for some of its biggest projects of the past.
Judy and Nick are taking a selfie in Zootopia.
Their upcoming lineup is filled with continuations of existing stories. Disney is currently in quite a predicament, as their original ideas aren't performing up to their usual standards, which is leading to an over-reliance on sequels. For example, Wish has been declared a box office flop due to its disappointing $3.7 million opening. This was not the media giant's only misstep of the year, though, and it ended up costing Disney their years-long streak of producing a movie that crosses the $1 billion milestone at the worldwide box office.
Woody and Bo Peep in Toy Story 4 are standing together.
This massive decline in performance for Disney has raised questions about its ability to deliver based on audience preferences, which has led to it going back to its past stories for its upcoming releases. In an attempt to push out content that already has a well-established audience, Disney has slated numerous sequels to some of their biggest successes. Inside Out 2, Toy Story 5, Frozen 3 & 4, and Zootopia 2 have all been confirmed to be released within the upcoming years. Although sequels allow for audiences to revisit beloved characters, this strategy could prove to be detrimental to Disney's success in the long run.
Anna has a hand on Elsa's shoulder while surrounded by singing villagers in Frozen .2.
The Impact of Disney's Sequel Approach
The best sequels emerge when there is a natural and important follow-up story to be told, and Disney used to subscribe to this ideology. It waited 13 years to release a follow-up to the extremely popular film, Finding Nemo, and 14 years to re-visit The Incredibles. While this long of a gap between films probably isn't necessary, it showed the level of care the studio put into creating sequels that didn't stand to tarnish the legacy of the original. Now, however, Disney seems to be churning out sequel after sequel with little regard for the integrity of the story.
Elsa is dazzled by the Enchanted forest in Frozen 2.
Many of their sequels, like Frozen 2, do extremely well, but eventually, the studio is going to run out of stories to tell in these universes. The Toy Story franchise, for example, has already seen four movies, and the last two definitely could have served as the conclusion. With another film on the way, it is starting to feel like overkill and an over-reliance on audiences' affiliation with the beloved characters. The strategy of pulling people into the box office based on nostalgia and recognizability might work in the short term, but in the long term, the sequels will just feel stale and chip away at Disney's reputation of being the premier storytellers.
The Incredibles are hiding underground in Incredibles 2.
The Studio's Future Direction
The studio has always been known as one that can generate innovative stories that connect with millions of viewers. Therefore, it should focus on re-igniting this, instead of just generating more sequels. However, that does not mean they shouldn't create any sequels at all. While they should re-direct focus to generating new characters and stories, they should also turn to some of their more recent original successes. Moana and Encanto are both incredibly popular, but neither has gotten a sequel announcement. These stories are deserving of continuation and are more indicative of the direction Disney wants to head in in the future.
Mirabel is looking at something in the distance in Encanto.
Instead of trying to generate as much content as possible for older franchises, the studio can turn to some of their most recent wins and build upon those instead. Given that they also have an established audience, they are likely to be big-wins for Disney but there will also be newer and fresher stories. Although Toy Story and Frozen are exceptional, it's time for the studio to take inventory of all of the stories they have in their arsenal and continue to generate content that feels innovative and exciting.
