As of July 2022, the four biggest movie flops of all time were Disney productions. "Turning Red" (2022), "Jungle Cruise" (2021), "Mars Needs Moms" (2011), and "Mulan" (2020) recorded losses of more than 140 million U.S. dollars at the global box office.
Film releases and bad timing
Out of the 10 movies listed, eight were released in or after March 2020, a month remembered for the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19. These films went big with the budget but went literally home as streaming became a safer bet for movie premieres amidst the pandemic. The coronavirus impacted movie ticket sales worldwide. In 2021, the box office revenue in the United States and Canada amounted to less than 40 percent of the value reported in 2019, before the outbreak. The largest cinema market on the planet seems to have experienced a swifter recovery. China saw its box office revenue add up to 47.3 billion yuan in 2021, or almost 74 percent of the 2019 figure.
Can Disney afford flopping at the box office?
Although the media Leviathan had also struggled during the core months of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Walt Disney Company's revenue started to bounce back and continues to amount to dozens of billions of dollars. In the meantime, the corporation invested even more in publicizing its new releases. Disney's advertising spending stood at 5.5 billion dollars in 2021 – a value almost two times higher than the ad expense recorded in 2019. The expansion indicates that the company could manage eventual failures at the box office while profiting from its blockbusters and non-film-related divisions.
