> Disney’s flew to $6B this year off the heels of 16 wide releases including two $1 billion-plus grossing titles with Zootopia 2 ($1.3B to date) and Lilo & Stitch ($1.038 billion) — the only two MPA titles to cross that mark. There were also three Marvel Studios movies which combined topped $1.3B global: The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts* and Captain America: Brave New World
> This is Disney’s fifth time clicking past $6B, the previous years being 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016
This is Disney’s 2nd year achieving this milestone without a single MCU title grossing north of a billion worldwide.
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 13:17
And yet every comment about Doomsday is about how "Desperate" Disney is.
withLotsofPulp2025-12-25 13:39
Fr, people seem to think that them bringing everyone back for Doomsday is desperation. IT’S BUSINESS BABY.
quantumpencil2025-12-25 13:46
No, it's desperation. This was not their original plan, they are aware of how much worse MCU films are performing, how poor the merchandise sales have become etc.
That doesn't mean disney is going broke or in existential danger, they're not. That's not because the MCU hasn't suffered a severe decline though and that they aren't desperate to try and revive it and improve its performance, it's just that disney is a huge company with a lot of IPS and revenue streams and so is fairly resilient to such shocks.
Disney is fine because even though the MCU and Star Wars are struggling, their animated properties, parks, princess brands, etc are all still doing well.
Danal12025-12-25 15:10
Desperate for business. I’m not gonna act like I know why they decide the things they do, but if the multiverse saga was a financially lucrative as they wanted it to be I don’t think the first trailer for Doomsday would’ve been “hey member endgame? I member.” And marvel/disney being business 1st quality 2nd is exactly why people are falling out of love with these movies
fistkick182025-12-25 16:51
That's a lot of words for "I refuse to understand business"
eyebrows3602025-12-25 18:02
> business 1st quality 2nd
If their "quality" is not high enough, their "business" fails. They are never\* putting "business" above "quality" because at *their* scale "quality" *is* "business". They aren't blumhouse, they can't just churn out shit.
\*Yes of course there's the launch of D+ and the attempt to increase production, but as that *did* seem to have a negative impact, it's been altered. Note: it might have gone well. On the other hand, we *could* have been having this convo a decade ago, had the "attempt to increase production" after the first brace of successful films hadn't gone so well, and "churning out" 2-3 per year hadn't panned out. There's never a status quo. There's always change.
Patchy_Face_Man2025-12-25 15:22
It’s also comic books. I don’t get that more people don’t get that.
Maleficent_Ant_88952025-12-25 15:30
People want to complain
It’s literally our culture now. We live in an engagement/attention economy, rage/whining/controversy gets the most engagement
It’s beyond stupid
Patchy_Face_Man2025-12-25 15:37
The sad truth.
CommunityDragon1842025-12-25 15:45
It’s the fuckin WORST.
Ppl are addicted to being miserable these days
bajaxx2025-12-25 16:07
it’s like how in monsters inc the world runs on screams. i wish we change it so it runs on laughter like in the movie
unklejakk2025-12-25 16:50
The internet has always leaned negative but it feels like since 2020 everyone online has been robbed of their joy. I mean, it’s understandable since irl things have been awful for everyone, but it still sucks that being miserable has become everyone’s default position.
eyebrows3602025-12-25 17:57
I was gonna cite [Cinema Sins](https://www.youtube.com/@CinemaSins/videos) vs [Cinema Wins](https://www.youtube.com/@CinemaWins/videos) as further evidence to your point, as Sins has 4x the subscriber numbers of Wins (due to having been around a lot longer too, of course), *but* looking at their actual view counts for recent videos they're pretty similar! Maybe things aren't so bad after all.
unklejakk2025-12-25 18:20
I would actually be interested in knowing what exactly lead to the fall off of CinemaSins. Those videos used to do huge numbers. I know for me personally I stopped watching around the time people started doing CinemaSins/Nostalgia Critic style critiques but unironically so the joke kinda stopped being funny to me. I wonder if that was the case for a lot of people, or if people moved on to modern day outrage bait content instead.
CaptHayfever2025-12-26 00:06
Sins has been running for so long that a lot of its early fans probably got sick of it.
Paladar22025-12-25 16:58
People complaining never read comics. No one is ever truly dead in comic books lol
CHRISPYakaKON2025-12-25 18:21
Don’t be logical here
djprofitt2025-12-25 21:40
I think that criticism stems from them trying something new after Endgame, people didn’t like the new characters and only kept talking about how great it used to be.
I, for one, was excited about new characters and felt the only issue was they pushed too many new characters all at once instead of integrating them into the existing characters that will eventually be phased out too.
Doomsday for me, after 18 years, having a lot of the same characters come back is kinda low hanging fruit despite what the comic runs are, but I get why Disney would do it also, it’s a smart business move because I am absolutely going to see it.
Patchy_Face_Man2025-12-25 22:48
Yeah there are a lot of reasons they struggled and Marvel could have done better in many ways and some problems were of their control. But at the heart of it, imo, is two main reasons.
One: The storyline had reached a natural conclusion for much of the audience and they could get off the train.
Two: The multiverse is a fun at times but extremely flimsy basis for storytelling that is hard enough to keep in the rails on comics let alone films.
As for going back to the well. The major pull of multiverse storytelling is the same as any other, the main characters. The audience wants to see different versions of their familiar characters.
Let’s do a mirror mirror episode of Star Trek but make it about a completely different crew. No. Marvel was trying to move the universe forward while telling a multiverse saga in the background without the main interest of that storyline.
Marvel isn’t just cynically going back to what worked. They’re actually trying to deliver on what people should have expected from the story they set up.
Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if they steal Crisis on Infinite Earths ending and put Cap and Peggy and a pocket universe after clipping their branch. Or something completely different. But I’m more intrigued than I have been in a long while.
djprofitt2025-12-25 23:11
Yes this was the ultimate direction they were going it but not yet. Remember it was suppose to be a Kang storyline but fumbled the stories they told in some respects and of course, Majors’ legal problems. Everything leading to Dooms Day got moved up considerably which means we got the actors and shows we got moving forward. Good, bad, or ugly.
stonespiral2025-12-27 17:19
this is what I've been saying! I feel like folks that are aware of how Marvel and DC comics work know that everything they're doing is just normal comic book storyline business. People that aren't aware are either not aware of that or are just internet trolls. This doesn't seem lazy to me, it seems like introducing how this stuff works to the general audience and yeah, sometimes that stuff does not work in the comics and it is bad. That's going to happen here as well, all we can really do is wait and see and appreciate that we even get to have all this.
Doright362025-12-25 17:24
I still can not believe that people actually thought Steve wouldn't be back at some point.
I never once believed he was gone for good.
SeniorRicketts2025-12-25 18:11
Or Tony, rumors about RDJ returning started about a year after EG, IIRC
Sure it was never planned as Doom but still
cjohnson20102025-12-25 19:52
Fun fact. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
AceofKnaves442025-12-25 21:52
There was absolutely zero chance Evans, the Russo’s, and RDJ were never going to come back. Whether every movie since Endgame hit a billion or every single movie flopped they were all going to come back. The Russo’s have always said that Secret Wars is their dream project. RDJ did nothing but Marvel from 2014 through 2019 and Evans had shown up in at least one scene in a Marvel movie from 2011 to 2019. I think both of them stepped away wanting to take a break and commit themselves to other things. Evans has never wanted to be just an action star. He clearly wants to be seen as a “real actor.” But they were always going to come back. They wouldn’t have left Steve’s fate so open ended if he finished Endgame and told them he was done for good.
MobsterDragon2752025-12-26 00:06
Plus, like did they assume that Marvel WASN'T going to go for a big crossover movie again? I'd argue that a big problem the MCU had the last several years is they waited too long to do so, and didn't build up to it very coherently
ThePhunkyPharaoh2025-12-25 13:49
Well, I’m neither arguing for or against the idea that Disney is “desperate” with the MCU, but that headline does not come across as favorable for the MCU outlook comparatively.
3 movies for $1.3 billion. Zootopia and Lilo & Stitch both made over a billion on their own
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 14:22
And the year before, Deadpool made $1.3b by itself. Disney sees all of this as just doing business.
It shows that Disney isn't making decisions on the fly and "desperate" to make money when they make it all over the fucking place. They aren't screeching behind closed doors and "desperately changing all their plans".
"Oh no, Fantastic Four only made a modest profit. Whatever will we do!"
DeKosterIsNietDom2025-12-25 15:32
Deadpool had to bring back Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and its storyline was basically an excuse to insert a bunch of random cameos. Don't see how that movie is somehow proof that they're not desperate?
CommunityDragon1842025-12-25 15:46
No
Paladar22025-12-25 17:00
Hugh Jackman wasn’t even in Deadpool 3 originally and he called Reynolds and told him he wanted to do it
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 17:35
"had to bring back"
Bro, why are we trying to act like fans didn't fucking want that? It wasn't desperate; it was what we wanted!
CaptHayfever2025-12-26 00:07
And it's what *Reynolds* wanted too!
eyebrows3602025-12-25 18:06
So if they make something good, they're "desperate". If they make new plans, they're "desperate".
Is there anything they can do that you won't class as "desperate"?
ThePhunkyPharaoh2025-12-25 17:00
I think you picked a bad example. Deadpool rode the wave of the previous non-MCU films and Hugh Jackman coming back. The “new” character movies of these phases have been underperforming, which is super unfortunate because they’ve largely been good imp
While Disney may not be desperate, they have pivoted, like reducing the amount of content or shelving sequels. I love the MCU and almost every project and I don’t think the quality has been reduced or sacrificed, I’m just saying I think it’s a little bold to suggest that the MCU is at the same level as it was and that Disney isnt trying to find every avenue to get it back to what it was.
AnwaAnduril2025-12-25 19:02
Exactly.
In 2015, a Captain America movie + an MCU Fantastic Four film would have cleared 1.5 billion easily. Add in a misfits found family movie with Bucky and the brand would have had a 2 billion+ year, and that’s pre-2020’s inflation.
But in 2025, the Fantastic Four — who people have been wanting in the MCU for over a decade — got lapped by live action slop.
AverageAwndray2025-12-25 15:14
The 2 can be mutually exclusive
Linnus422025-12-25 16:05
I mean this headline is biased to be pro MCU. 3 movies to make 1.3 billion means every movie only made about 430 mil.
LILO, zootopia and avatar are all going to clear 1 billion by themselves.
Nonadventures2025-12-25 16:17
I don’t think desperate is the right word, but they are in a sort of recovery mode after all the scrambled changes due to Jonathan Majors, Covid, Disney+, etc. I think the biggest question is whether this downturn was the exception and MCU would always be posting solid numbers — or if 2014-2019 was the exception, and MCU is sort of a mild interest to the general public with rare exceptions.
AmaterasuWolf212025-12-25 18:05
I mean, they need to recapture the recurring audience
ABC_Dildos_Inc2025-12-25 18:07
They've been open about the movies not making enough to turn a profit.
If you spend $1 billion to produce and market films that only gross $900 million, that's a permanent loss.
They likely lost more on the Marvel films since Endgame than the next two Avengers films can possibly net.
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 18:23
>They've been open about the movies not making enough to turn a profit.
They've never said that. At best they've acknowledged some were "disappointing", but they've never outright said the movies didn't turn a profit. (*Most* of them have, btw)
>They likely lost more on the Marvel films since Endgame than the next two Avengers films can possibly net.
Total crock of shit here. They lost a solid amount on the Marvels. They made a profit on FF. They made a metric shit ton on Deadpool that likely negated any of the losses by itself.
AnwaAnduril2025-12-25 19:00
Maybe “desperate” is an exaggeration but the brand has definitely lost hype.
In 2015, a Captain America movie + an MCU Fantastic Four film would have cleared 1.5 billion easily. Add in a misfits found family movie with Bucky and the brand would have had a 2 billion+ year, and that’s pre-2020’s inflation.
I think Disney is looking at Marvel now as *a* franchise that they own, no longer as *the* dominant money-maker. And Feige for his part would like it to return to 2014-2019 levels of success.
cashflowberto2025-12-25 19:07
2025, first year since 2011.That a Marvel movie was not in the top ten worldwide
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 19:12
Which only furthers my point that Disney is not desperate. They aren't sweating anything.
cashflowberto2025-12-25 19:46
I absolutely agree. Disney is not desperate? Marvel, however, is not doing good compared to how they were doing prior to endgame. The general public has lost interest, which is quite apparent in these years' releases having good reviews but terrible numbers at the box office compared to pre pandemic numbers.
NoobFreakT2025-12-25 19:09
They are desperate though in the case of the MCU
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 20:14
Nah. $1.3b off 3 movies isn't "sky is falling" territory. It's "Okay, guess no one wants Thunderbolts 2, moving on"
sbenthuggin2025-12-25 20:56
youre not rly getting it tho. clearly Disney at the top isn't desperate. but MCU, under Disney, that's supposed to make as much money as they can for their overlord company, is the one that's desperate.
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 21:03
The results I said wouldn't make them desperate. Desperate would imply they lost hundreds of millions of dollars. They didn't.
OsbornWasRight2025-12-25 19:13
Is this seriously a sub where MCU fans see cartoon animal movies running laps around MCU movies and think the MCU's in good shape?
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 20:07
Cartoon animal movies are running laps around every other franchise in the world.
In this case, it's certainly beneficial to be part of the company that makes them.
Livid_Foundation_5572025-12-25 23:06
Don't bother these idiots mindlessly consume and want Disney to make money
Good product? No stfu give company money for half baked shit and feel vindicated when it makes money (they won't see a cent out of it)
matty_nice2025-12-25 20:12
I think the comment is about how desperate Marvel is.
Marvel, even as a divsion under Disney, still has to make money.
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 20:23
Marvel is undoubtedly still making money.
matty_nice2025-12-25 20:24
Making a small profit is never the goal for these companies. They want MORE!
If you're on the board of directors at Disney, you want better results from Marvel. "How come you guys use to make a lot of money at the box office?" And there's not a great answer from Marvel besides their own mistakes.
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 20:39
There's no way the results of Thunderbolts shocked anyone. They made that movie knowing it had an uphill battle but the characters would also play a role in doomsday so it needed to be made.
They also probably expected brave New World to be an outright disaster after all the delays and reshoots; it instead came pretty close to a profit.
And the profits from Deadpool were so enormous that the minimal losses of this year don't mean much.
They're not desperate.
matty_nice2025-12-25 20:49
Everytime Disney and Marvel make a movie, it's with the expectation it will be profitable and make a decent return.
But companies are not okay with losing money on A because they make up for it with B. Deadpool's success doesn't impact the Thunderbolts' lack of success.
And no, Thunderbolts didn't have to be made. It was a choice Marvel made. Without checking, Thunderbolts was announced before Doomsday was even a thing.
Poku1152025-12-25 21:02
Yeah that's why they gave em a double marketing campaign, they dumped more money on it knowing nobody would watch in theaters nor streaming
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 21:12
This isn't public knowledge. You don't have this information.
Honest-J2025-12-25 20:53
Those kind of comments come from the haters. They're angry that Avengers will likely make money because they don't want to see Disney or Marvel succeed for a variety of reasons.
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 21:04
Based on some of the replies I'm getting, that seems quite likely.
Honest-J2025-12-25 21:06
And some of it is from people who quit after Endgame. They don't want to see anything that might tempt them back because they have FOMO for not keeping up.
Citizensnnippss2025-12-25 21:18
Yea the Steve Rogers trailer was a total jab at them in that case.
Any-Transition952025-12-26 06:47
A lot of people who quit following the MCU after Endgame want to feel justified and vindicated. They will be happy to parrot any opinion if it brings them comfort knowing the MCU is struggling.
You will find heaps of comments on YouTube who whine about She Hulk being shit while admitting they've never watched it. They were never gonna watch it, and just want to feel justified in their decision.
A lot of people also enjoy cheering for a big corporate like Disney/Marvel to fail.
AsterArtworks2025-12-25 23:24
The “MCU is dead” crow are purely reactionaries.
Viz00772025-12-25 14:13
Its actually amazing Disney achieved this despite none of the released MCU movies this year was not even in top 10.
SeniorRicketts2025-12-25 18:16
One record for another
Last time no MCU movie was in the top 10 was 2009 i think?
Suspicious-Word-75892025-12-26 09:13
Because there were no MCU films released in 2009.
BLAGTIER2025-12-27 00:06
2011 talking worldwide. Captain America was 10th on the domestic side.
The-Mandalorian2025-12-25 14:14
$1.3 billion is from Zootopia 2 alone.
firedforthatblunder2025-12-25 15:01
And another billion is from the Lilo & Stitch remake alone
AverageAwndray2025-12-25 15:15
And people wonder why Disney wont stop the slop lol
Spaceballs_the_tag2025-12-25 16:59
I would argue that Zootopia 2 was better than slop. It still had a genuine heart to it and fun story, but there’s no forgiveness for Lilo and Stitch. That thing felt empty, soulless and heartless.
thr0waway24352025-12-25 17:15
I liked both Zootopia 2 and Lilo and Stitch live action, though I didn’t think they were THAT good either.
The only Disney movie I really loved this year was Elio, which I think was legitimately great, by a substantial margin the best Disney film I’ve seen this year. Naturally, it did poorly at the box office, while everyone complains about why Disney won’t release better original IP.
Johndoe199222222025-12-25 17:59
Zootopia 2 is far from slop, that would be the multiverse saga.
Zarianin2025-12-25 18:00
What slop? Zootopia 2, Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four were all critically acclaimed. Lilo and Stitch live action was a step down but still did well critically. Their only subpar movie was Captain America 4.
Poku1152025-12-25 21:04
And to that guys point thunderbolts was completely rejected both on theaters and streaming, and f4 had the worse debut a mcu movie has had on streaming and was beaten by superman.
Audiences want slop
annoyingrelieve2025-12-25 21:59
The slop is lilo and stitch everything else is pretty good or ok
Ironsam8112025-12-26 15:25
Marvel lost China and their goodwill in the general audience, it’s an uphill battle but not as bad as Star Wars
demonoddy2025-12-26 18:54
We’ll see what happens next year.
demonoddy2025-12-26 18:53
Those are all pretty good to great movies.
BitchesGetStitches2025-12-30 16:21
Lilo and Stitch was awesome.
notsure5002025-12-26 17:51
Yes, but the point is marvel movies used to make 1.3 billion each, now its 1.3 billion total for 3
mitthrawn2025-12-26 18:48
Apart from the Avengers and Spider Man movies there wasn’t even a handful that crossed 1 billion, let alone 1.3 billion.
Modified32025-12-25 14:21
They are not desperate with the MCU. They have already made their money back and then some on the movies alone. Then there are comics, toys, video games, clothing and a million other things they sell with the characters.
They could take a break on the movies for years and still rake in billions. Not to mention Star Wars and all of 20th century fox. They have more then enough IP to make money if they wanted to pivot.
SeniorRicketts2025-12-25 18:14
I'm curious how much Star wars money they made since EP9 but there was also Grogu
Decibel_25142025-12-26 03:00
Gonna take a wild guess and say that ep9 was still very profitible irregardless of quality.
CruzAderjc2025-12-25 15:16
Not being a naysayer here, but “back in the day,” the MCU used to pump out movies that made about $1billion all by themself in one movie. It know Disney is still making a lot of money, but for Marvelt o require 3 movies to now make what 1 movie made 10 years ago is definitely a sign that we’re not as profitable. All of these movies and projects require money to make. The actual net return for the company was much, much higher 10 years ago.
MattyBeatz2025-12-25 15:33
There are 37 MCU movies total. 11 made a billion or more and 4 of them are Avengers films (5 if you count civil war) 3 were with other studios (2 Spider-man, Deadpool&Wolverine) It’s never been “every movie”. It’s mostly been the team ups.
Yes, standalone films did it - IM3, Black Panther, Captain Marvel. I’d argue 2 of those were flukes that were released at the right time, subsequent sequels have confirmed as much.
My point, timing helped a lot. Knowing when to drop a film to set up something bigger, building anticipation, all that. They have not been able to figure out the D+ factor plain and simple. TV is a different beast than movies and the merger of the two into their overall plan has hurt them the most. They have big team ups on the horizon with Avengers and Spider-Man films. Could prove to be a big turnaround for them.
fistkick182025-12-25 16:56
> Yes, standalone films did it - IM3, Black Panther, Captain Marvel. I’d argue 2 of those were flukes that were released at the right time, subsequent sequels have confirmed as much
Unnecessary burn towards BP2 and The Marvels lmao.
But... Yeahhh I agree. There are more deserving MCU entries.
MattyBeatz2025-12-25 17:35
Not burns. Just proof that the timing of those releases had much more to do with their success than the IP’s popularity.
Linnus422025-12-25 16:03
Back in the day any two non avengers movies got you 1.3 Billion.
Operator_Starlight2025-12-25 15:25
We know at least 1B of that was gift wrapped and handed over to OpenAI. Wonder what pockets the other 5B lined?
TreyWriter2025-12-25 16:17
AI is a cancer, but this is just about box office receipts. Their movies have made $6 billion at the box office this year (and counting, Avatar was just released).
fistkick182025-12-25 16:53
Most of Disney's money isn't from movies, but good try on the attempt at dialogue.
Operator_Starlight2025-12-25 17:07
Um…the topic of conversation is 6B generated from their film slate. Yes, I know where most of their money comes.
fistkick182025-12-25 17:34
They didn't generate 6B in profit. Do you understand the difference between revenue and profit? Do you understand that their film slate is basically a loss leader that serves for marketing their actually profitable enterprises, namely hospitality?
Please explain how a $1B investment earmarked for a completely separate side of their business (streaming) is somehow financed by their theatrical side?
Or do you just like making shit up, and have no idea how business works at all?
If you did, you'd understand that your initial statement is rote nonsense.
Jonathon_G2025-12-25 16:05
Let’s see where they end up with Avatar too
TheoryShort73042025-12-25 16:06
The only studio that did not participated in bidding for Warner Bros, because it knew, it would win easily😅
Jokes apart, that's really nice on Disney. If things go right, then $2 billion coming from Avengers Doomsday next year (movie should be just amazing and fun to watch and I am hopeful about that).
Also, few hundred millions maybe from Avengers Endgame re-release in September.
And maybe few millions from Spiderman Brand New Day, as Marvel will get some share from it.
That's what just Marvel will be contributing to Disney in 2026.
CaptHayfever2025-12-26 00:36
More like because they knew it would never clear anti-trust so soon after they bought Fox.
Whole-Brilliant55082025-12-25 18:45
But....but....but....the dude bros and the anti-woke grifters told me that Disney was circling the drain. They told me Go Woke Go Broke! You mean they lied?????
Wooden-Radish-90082025-12-25 20:52
Yes. Zootopia 2 made a billion dollars and it's genuinely about those who are "superior" using widespread fear and targeted propaganda to benefit off of and displace minorities for profit.
Daily reminder that Youtube grifters legitimately have no clue what they are talking about.
Whole-Brilliant55082025-12-25 20:54
Oh, no. They know exactly what they're talking about. They just know that there's more money in riding the anti-Disney/anti-woke train.
Wooden-Radish-90082025-12-25 21:10
I often think about how much more money I could be making if I was an intellectually dishonest piece of shit.
Whole-Brilliant55082025-12-25 21:13
Sadly there's a rabid (and uneducated) audience for that kind of shit unfortunately. 🤷
Star_Powerup2025-12-25 18:55
just by rough guesses, this year mcu movies made a small profit or broke even all together which isn't the worst thing in the year considering how fucking bad this years box office was.
matty_nice2025-12-25 20:23
The clear takeaway from the box office this year, outside of popular IP, is that movies aimed at kids and familie are gonna make a lot of money. Adults may wait for something to hit streaming, but kids are gonna want to see the films in theatres. And it's way to do an event with your kids which is pretty easy to do.
How does this impact Marvel? I think a few ways.
They need to make films with popular characters. Ask a kid who his favorite Marvel character is. Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor. It's not the FF or Thunderbolts.
They need to get kids to like the other characters. Have a cartoon with a character on D+ before giving him a movie. FF haven't had a successful cartoon in a while, kids don't care about them. Really need to do a "Wolverine and his Uncanny Friends" kids cartoon before the X-Men films. X-Men 97 seems like it's meant for adults, and not really kids. Even the new Spider-Man show doesn't seem aimed at kids. This also means toys.
Wooden-Radish-90082025-12-25 20:56
Daily reminder that Disney as a studio, even if a movie bombs, will always have other sure fire hits come along to pay off those short comings. They don't care that Thunderbolts lost a little bit of money, because Zootopia essentially paid it off. And boom, Thunderbolts STILL gets to lead into Doomsday, it STILL gets to pull in ad revenue for Disney Plus. All the MCU is desperate and dying is wild.
Wooden-Radish-90082025-12-25 21:07
So from what I could find the reported budgets for those three movies were
BNW: $180 mil
Thunderbolts: $180 mil
FF: $180 mil
Let's assume that the marketing is the typical $100 mil each and just for simplicity assume that brand deals didnt offset any of it (which it does, but let's just pretend)
BNW: $280 mil
Thunderbolts: $280 mil
FF: $280 mil
"But, but, but....there's no way Brave New World's production budget was only $180 people have reported that it reached up to 480 MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!"
Okay, let's be generous and round it up to 500 million dollars! (Ludicrous, but sure.)
BNW: $600 mil
Thunderbolts: $280 mil
FF: $280 mil
Total: $1,160,000,000 cost
With ALLLLLLLL these assumptions, and ridiculous round ups and disregards of how the industry actually works, Marvel Studios still pulls in a profit for Disney of $140,000,000
MCU is fine.
hemareddit2025-12-26 13:14
I love it when people who don’t know anything about box office try to defend their favorite movie by trying to calculate the profits: they always forget about the theater’s cut.
Reminder: globally production company gets less than 50% of the box office, the rest goes to the cinemas themselves, the exact % depends on the contribution from each country.
Anyway in your example, with the assumption of $100 mil in marketing per movie, and assumption of 50% cut of the box office, the MCU made a *loss* of $190 mil.
And if I come across as condescending and smug, it’s only because you were the same way but ended up being r/confidentlyincorrect.
Wooden-Radish-90082025-12-26 14:14
A lot of assumptions in that there first paragraph. These reddit box office bros are something else.
"And if I come across as condescending and smug, it’s only because you were the same way"
If you're an asshole just say that, but trying to justify being an asshole because "you did it first" is pathetic. No one was condescending to you. Also tagging another subreddit is crazy lame.
"Reminder: globally production company gets less than 50% of the box office, the rest goes to the cinemas themselves, the exact % depends on the contribution from each country."
This pretty much tells me everything about the value of your reddit box office degree. I implore you to leave actual analysis to actual people who actually know something they didnt just pull from Google's AI response. Thanks and have a good one!
BackgroundEngineer112025-12-25 21:39
I'm kind of surprised they haven't done an animated MCU movie (Big Hero 6 doesn't count).
AsterArtworks2025-12-25 23:23
The “MCU is dead” crowd are all freshly lobotomized.
MrDoom4e52025-12-26 02:08
Merry Christmas Disney!
XanderAcorn2025-12-26 04:36
All that money and they still fcked up the Star Wars movies.
Jackraow212025-12-27 18:15
The year before they only had one MCU movie and it made $1.34B alone. Deadpool & Wolverine. Loved it!
Commentaires
> Disney’s flew to $6B this year off the heels of 16 wide releases including two $1 billion-plus grossing titles with Zootopia 2 ($1.3B to date) and Lilo & Stitch ($1.038 billion) — the only two MPA titles to cross that mark. There were also three Marvel Studios movies which combined topped $1.3B global: The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts* and Captain America: Brave New World
> This is Disney’s fifth time clicking past $6B, the previous years being 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016
This is Disney’s 2nd year achieving this milestone without a single MCU title grossing north of a billion worldwide.
That doesn't mean disney is going broke or in existential danger, they're not. That's not because the MCU hasn't suffered a severe decline though and that they aren't desperate to try and revive it and improve its performance, it's just that disney is a huge company with a lot of IPS and revenue streams and so is fairly resilient to such shocks.
Disney is fine because even though the MCU and Star Wars are struggling, their animated properties, parks, princess brands, etc are all still doing well.
If their "quality" is not high enough, their "business" fails. They are never\* putting "business" above "quality" because at *their* scale "quality" *is* "business". They aren't blumhouse, they can't just churn out shit.
\*Yes of course there's the launch of D+ and the attempt to increase production, but as that *did* seem to have a negative impact, it's been altered. Note: it might have gone well. On the other hand, we *could* have been having this convo a decade ago, had the "attempt to increase production" after the first brace of successful films hadn't gone so well, and "churning out" 2-3 per year hadn't panned out. There's never a status quo. There's always change.
It’s literally our culture now. We live in an engagement/attention economy, rage/whining/controversy gets the most engagement
It’s beyond stupid
Ppl are addicted to being miserable these days
I, for one, was excited about new characters and felt the only issue was they pushed too many new characters all at once instead of integrating them into the existing characters that will eventually be phased out too.
Doomsday for me, after 18 years, having a lot of the same characters come back is kinda low hanging fruit despite what the comic runs are, but I get why Disney would do it also, it’s a smart business move because I am absolutely going to see it.
One: The storyline had reached a natural conclusion for much of the audience and they could get off the train.
Two: The multiverse is a fun at times but extremely flimsy basis for storytelling that is hard enough to keep in the rails on comics let alone films.
As for going back to the well. The major pull of multiverse storytelling is the same as any other, the main characters. The audience wants to see different versions of their familiar characters.
Let’s do a mirror mirror episode of Star Trek but make it about a completely different crew. No. Marvel was trying to move the universe forward while telling a multiverse saga in the background without the main interest of that storyline.
Marvel isn’t just cynically going back to what worked. They’re actually trying to deliver on what people should have expected from the story they set up.
Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if they steal Crisis on Infinite Earths ending and put Cap and Peggy and a pocket universe after clipping their branch. Or something completely different. But I’m more intrigued than I have been in a long while.
I never once believed he was gone for good.
Sure it was never planned as Doom but still
3 movies for $1.3 billion. Zootopia and Lilo & Stitch both made over a billion on their own
It shows that Disney isn't making decisions on the fly and "desperate" to make money when they make it all over the fucking place. They aren't screeching behind closed doors and "desperately changing all their plans".
"Oh no, Fantastic Four only made a modest profit. Whatever will we do!"
Bro, why are we trying to act like fans didn't fucking want that? It wasn't desperate; it was what we wanted!
Is there anything they can do that you won't class as "desperate"?
While Disney may not be desperate, they have pivoted, like reducing the amount of content or shelving sequels. I love the MCU and almost every project and I don’t think the quality has been reduced or sacrificed, I’m just saying I think it’s a little bold to suggest that the MCU is at the same level as it was and that Disney isnt trying to find every avenue to get it back to what it was.
In 2015, a Captain America movie + an MCU Fantastic Four film would have cleared 1.5 billion easily. Add in a misfits found family movie with Bucky and the brand would have had a 2 billion+ year, and that’s pre-2020’s inflation.
But in 2025, the Fantastic Four — who people have been wanting in the MCU for over a decade — got lapped by live action slop.
LILO, zootopia and avatar are all going to clear 1 billion by themselves.
If you spend $1 billion to produce and market films that only gross $900 million, that's a permanent loss.
They likely lost more on the Marvel films since Endgame than the next two Avengers films can possibly net.
They've never said that. At best they've acknowledged some were "disappointing", but they've never outright said the movies didn't turn a profit. (*Most* of them have, btw)
>They likely lost more on the Marvel films since Endgame than the next two Avengers films can possibly net.
Total crock of shit here. They lost a solid amount on the Marvels. They made a profit on FF. They made a metric shit ton on Deadpool that likely negated any of the losses by itself.
In 2015, a Captain America movie + an MCU Fantastic Four film would have cleared 1.5 billion easily. Add in a misfits found family movie with Bucky and the brand would have had a 2 billion+ year, and that’s pre-2020’s inflation.
I think Disney is looking at Marvel now as *a* franchise that they own, no longer as *the* dominant money-maker. And Feige for his part would like it to return to 2014-2019 levels of success.
In this case, it's certainly beneficial to be part of the company that makes them.
Good product? No stfu give company money for half baked shit and feel vindicated when it makes money (they won't see a cent out of it)
Marvel, even as a divsion under Disney, still has to make money.
If you're on the board of directors at Disney, you want better results from Marvel. "How come you guys use to make a lot of money at the box office?" And there's not a great answer from Marvel besides their own mistakes.
They also probably expected brave New World to be an outright disaster after all the delays and reshoots; it instead came pretty close to a profit.
And the profits from Deadpool were so enormous that the minimal losses of this year don't mean much.
They're not desperate.
But companies are not okay with losing money on A because they make up for it with B. Deadpool's success doesn't impact the Thunderbolts' lack of success.
And no, Thunderbolts didn't have to be made. It was a choice Marvel made. Without checking, Thunderbolts was announced before Doomsday was even a thing.
You will find heaps of comments on YouTube who whine about She Hulk being shit while admitting they've never watched it. They were never gonna watch it, and just want to feel justified in their decision.
A lot of people also enjoy cheering for a big corporate like Disney/Marvel to fail.
Last time no MCU movie was in the top 10 was 2009 i think?
The only Disney movie I really loved this year was Elio, which I think was legitimately great, by a substantial margin the best Disney film I’ve seen this year. Naturally, it did poorly at the box office, while everyone complains about why Disney won’t release better original IP.
Audiences want slop
They could take a break on the movies for years and still rake in billions. Not to mention Star Wars and all of 20th century fox. They have more then enough IP to make money if they wanted to pivot.
Yes, standalone films did it - IM3, Black Panther, Captain Marvel. I’d argue 2 of those were flukes that were released at the right time, subsequent sequels have confirmed as much.
My point, timing helped a lot. Knowing when to drop a film to set up something bigger, building anticipation, all that. They have not been able to figure out the D+ factor plain and simple. TV is a different beast than movies and the merger of the two into their overall plan has hurt them the most. They have big team ups on the horizon with Avengers and Spider-Man films. Could prove to be a big turnaround for them.
Unnecessary burn towards BP2 and The Marvels lmao.
But... Yeahhh I agree. There are more deserving MCU entries.
Please explain how a $1B investment earmarked for a completely separate side of their business (streaming) is somehow financed by their theatrical side?
Or do you just like making shit up, and have no idea how business works at all?
If you did, you'd understand that your initial statement is rote nonsense.
Jokes apart, that's really nice on Disney. If things go right, then $2 billion coming from Avengers Doomsday next year (movie should be just amazing and fun to watch and I am hopeful about that).
Also, few hundred millions maybe from Avengers Endgame re-release in September.
And maybe few millions from Spiderman Brand New Day, as Marvel will get some share from it.
That's what just Marvel will be contributing to Disney in 2026.
Daily reminder that Youtube grifters legitimately have no clue what they are talking about.
How does this impact Marvel? I think a few ways.
They need to make films with popular characters. Ask a kid who his favorite Marvel character is. Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor. It's not the FF or Thunderbolts.
They need to get kids to like the other characters. Have a cartoon with a character on D+ before giving him a movie. FF haven't had a successful cartoon in a while, kids don't care about them. Really need to do a "Wolverine and his Uncanny Friends" kids cartoon before the X-Men films. X-Men 97 seems like it's meant for adults, and not really kids. Even the new Spider-Man show doesn't seem aimed at kids. This also means toys.
BNW: $180 mil
Thunderbolts: $180 mil
FF: $180 mil
Let's assume that the marketing is the typical $100 mil each and just for simplicity assume that brand deals didnt offset any of it (which it does, but let's just pretend)
BNW: $280 mil
Thunderbolts: $280 mil
FF: $280 mil
"But, but, but....there's no way Brave New World's production budget was only $180 people have reported that it reached up to 480 MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!"
Okay, let's be generous and round it up to 500 million dollars! (Ludicrous, but sure.)
BNW: $600 mil
Thunderbolts: $280 mil
FF: $280 mil
Total: $1,160,000,000 cost
With ALLLLLLLL these assumptions, and ridiculous round ups and disregards of how the industry actually works, Marvel Studios still pulls in a profit for Disney of $140,000,000
MCU is fine.
Reminder: globally production company gets less than 50% of the box office, the rest goes to the cinemas themselves, the exact % depends on the contribution from each country.
Anyway in your example, with the assumption of $100 mil in marketing per movie, and assumption of 50% cut of the box office, the MCU made a *loss* of $190 mil.
And if I come across as condescending and smug, it’s only because you were the same way but ended up being r/confidentlyincorrect.
"And if I come across as condescending and smug, it’s only because you were the same way"
If you're an asshole just say that, but trying to justify being an asshole because "you did it first" is pathetic. No one was condescending to you. Also tagging another subreddit is crazy lame.
"Reminder: globally production company gets less than 50% of the box office, the rest goes to the cinemas themselves, the exact % depends on the contribution from each country."
This pretty much tells me everything about the value of your reddit box office degree. I implore you to leave actual analysis to actual people who actually know something they didnt just pull from Google's AI response. Thanks and have a good one!