Disney Reportedly Considering Longer Theatrical Windows for Upcoming Animation Releases

The path from theatrical release to home media is the clearest that it has ever been. The days of Netflix being the only streaming service on the block are long gone, as multiple industry giants have over-the-top monthly subscriptions of their own. Studios like Disney and Warner Bros. have Disney+ and HBO Max under their banner, respectively, which allows for their theatrical releases to have an immediate home once their cinematic stay has passed. While it fluctuates, most pictures from the house of mouse run for 45 days until they land on their company's streaming service. This has proven to be both a blessing and a curse, as the once feverish rush to the theater has quickly transformed into, "I'll just wait until it's available on streaming."

2022 exemplified the downside of that ultimatum. Marvel Studios showed up to play, generating over $2.5 billion at the box office across its three theatrical releases last year, but the same could not be said for Disney's animated divisions. Lightyear, a legacy release from the highly-lucrative Toy Story franchise, generated just $226 million on a reported $200 million production budget. Results were even worse for Strange World, which failed to make back its nine-figure budget, cementing itself as a box office bomb.

Part of the reason for these financial flops could be due to the release windows. Lightyear began streaming on Disney+ just 47 days after hitting theaters, while Strange World arrived on the service exactly one month after its theatrical debut. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Disney insiders believe that these box office stumbles are due to "confusion in the marketplace" from families who "were trained during the pandemic just to wait for animated features to end up on Disney+." Disney is looking to rework this by extending the theatrical windows for both June's Elemental and November's Wish, two upcoming two-dimensional pictures from Pixar and Disney Animation, respectively.

This comes amidst announcements that direct sequels for Toy Story, Frozen, and Zootopia are on the way. Disney's attempt to course correct the animated box office this year is likely in hopes of having it as lucrative as possible when they drop follow-ups in already-existing billion dollar franchises.

Disney's next animated adventure, Elemental, hits theaters on June 16th.