Disney is renowned for its animation, but the company has still seen animated movies flop at the box office. Many of the early best Disney animated movies performed well enough at the box office, while the biggest flops came in the company’s later years. This is likely due to a myriad of factors, including basic inflation meaning a greater loss. Disney also has more box office flops after the rise of 3D animation, possibly due to an increase in animated blockbusters in general, meaning more compeтιтion and higher standards.

Many box office flops become cult classics, animated Disney movies included. This reflects how the marketability and advertising strategy may not be the best representation of a movie’s quality. The most underrated Disney movies are generally not the highest earners but still deserve the attention of the Disney fanbase. Unfortunately, Disney Animation is unlikely to take a chance on the same specific subgenre again when it resulted in a huge financial loss, for one reason or another.

15

Home On The Range (2004)

Grossed $145.3 Million Against $110 Million Budget

When discussions surrounding Disney’s animated features come up, there are a handful of movies that tend to be forgotten. That’s easy enough when a studio has 100 years of history. Home on the Range, unfortunately, is one of those movies that is very often forgotten. That’s largely because not many people saw it. The movie, an animated Western centered on a group of dairy cows, did not manage to land an audience, and was one of Disney’s last 2D animated movies. The final one would be released just five years later, The Princess and the Frog.

Domestic and worldwide box office earnings are according to boxofficemojo.com. If a movie’s losses were not reported by news outlets, the estimate is based on the general rule that a movie needs to earn 2.5 times its budget to break even.

2004 was, simply put, not a great year for Disney in general. In addition to Home on the Range, the company also had two other box office bombs, though the other two were live-action movies: Hidalgo and The Alamo. Both movies failed to make a splash. So, too, did the Disney animated TV adaptation of Teacher’s Pet for the big screen. Home on the Range ended up forgotten in a sea of Disney box office losses.

14

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Grossed $5.3 Million Against $6 Million Budget

Today, Sleeping Beauty is regarded as a Disney Princess classic. It, however, was not as beloved upon its release as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Cinderella. In fact, in its initial box office return, according to research from Michael Barrier’s book Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation In Its Golden Age, the movie did not even make its budget back.

In 1959, Sleeping Beauty was the most expensive animated movie Disney had produced. In fact, it was twice as expensive as the animated movies released right before it, like Peter Pan. At the time, Disney was more actively promoting its live-action projects than its animated projects, and some believe that may have contributed to the initial loss at the box office.

The loss presented by Sleeping Beauty contributed to the studio leaning even more into live-action projects over the next few years. Of course, since that original release, Sleeping Beauty has returned to theaters multiple times and has a much larger worldwide gross than that initial box office would suggest. Sleeping Beauty has amᴀssed more than $51 million at the box office over time.

13

Pinocchio (1940)

Grossed $1.4-1.6 Million Against $2.6 Million Budget

Less than $3 million for a budget for one of Disney’s animated movies would be unheard of in the modern world of movie making, but in 1940, that was a huge sum – even higher than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as Disney’s first animated feature film. When Pinocchio was first released to theaters in 1940, Disney was expecting success at the box office on par with Snow White. That, however, did not happen, and original box office reports vary, making it hard to know what the ticket sales really initially were.

Much like Sleeping Beauty and most of the classic Disney animated features, Pinocchio has been rereleased in theaters multiple times since it initially hit theaters.

Barrier’s book tracking the history of animation, however, does note that Disney recorded a $1 million loss due to the film. World War II likely played a role in the lack of success for the movie, since there was not much of a way to market it outside of the United States when so much of Europe was at war. Much like Sleeping Beauty and most of the classic Disney animated features, Pinocchio has been rereleased in theaters multiple times since it initially hit theaters. It’s gone on to make over $121.8 million at theaters around the world since.

12

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

Grossed $47.4 Million Against $25 Million Budget

The Rescuers proved to be one of Disney’s most successful releases of the late 1970s. Kids and adults alike loved the idea of a pair of mismatched mice on a big adventure. That’s why a rare (at the time) sequel was greenlit, though it did not release in theaters until 1990. It actually ran behind schedule and animators from Disney-MGM Studios had to be called upon to help finish the animation sequences. It is also, technically, the first Disney-Pixar collaboration, though not in the way movie audiences today would think of Pixar.

The original movie had a budget of under $8 million, so Disney showed a lot of faith in the sequel when they more than tripled the budget for the Australian-set tale. Unfortunately, it did not entirely return on the investment. Of course, the movie releasing on VHS the next year, and then on DVD a decade later, would certainly have helped recoup some of that loss.

11

The Good Dinosaur (2015)

Grossed $332 Million Against $175-200 Million Budget

The Good Dinosaur marked one of the many Disney-Pixar collaborations. Though the official budget was not made public. The Hollywood Reporter estimated that the movie would have cost anywhere from $175 to $200 million to make, right on par with other Pixar movies of the era. It has the unfortunate distinction of being considered Pixar’s first box office failure despite making over $332 million dollars at the box office.

The movie debuted the same year as Inside Out, which might have hurt its chances for a big box office haul. It was the first time two Disney-Pixar movies hit theaters in the same calendar year, and Inside Out was certainly much more successful as audiences were drawn to the unique concept instead. Inside Out ended up making over $850 million at the box office against a similar budget.

10

The Black Cauldron (1985)

Grossed $21.3 Million Against $44 Million Budget

The Black Cauldron is the archetypical “black sheep” of the Disney lineup, too dark and too strange to land with audiences that were accustomed to the most traditional Disney formula at the time. With appreciation for the movie growing with time, some now argue that a Black Cauldron remake could be a great horror movie. However, at the time, The Black Cauldron was a disaster with potentially far-reaching consequences for Disney, not even grossing half its budget.

Disney Animation struggled throughout the 70s and 80s following Walt Disney’s death, and The Black Cauldron is considered the movie that almost ended the animation department once and for all (via SlashFilm). Behind-the-scenes problems included animator Don Bluth leaving the company, taking a number of people with him. Luckily, Disney managed to come back at the end of the 80s when The Little Mermaid kicked off the Disney Renaissance.

9

Lightyear (2022)

Grossed $226.4 Million Against $200 Million Budget

Lightyear was not the movie the iconic character deserved, wasting its biggest points of nostalgia and coming to an unsatisfying conclusion. Pete Doctor said regarding Lightyear‘s failure (via TheWrap):

“I think probably what we’ve ended on in terms of what went wrong is that we asked too much of the audience. […] it was just a little too distant, both in concept, and I think in the way that characters were drawn, that they were portrayed. It was much more of a science fiction.”

Lightyear is a tonally strange and even grim movie if people come expecting a continuation of Toy Story. For that matter, Lightyear likely also struggled by comparison: Even if one wants to argue that it is a redeemable movie, it is still not as good as the worst Toy Story movie.

Lightyear came out at a strange time as Hollywood slowly tried to revive movie-going culture, but people had become accustomed to watching movies at home, something which is potentially responsible for other box office failures. The movie shouldn’t have spent as much time on a convoluted new story. It is not up there with Pixar’s biggest box office hits due to a misunderstanding of what would land with audiences in the context of the character’s history.

8

Onward (2020)

Grossed $142 Million Against $175 Million Budget

Onward is also not one of Pixar’s best movies, but it has a lot of redeeming elements that deserve more love. The setting is tons of fun, the cast is perfect, and the story is a heartrending look at a realistic scenario. Onward explores the different effects of a parent’s death on Ian and Barley, when Ian never knew his father, but Barley has some childhood memories of him. Onward wasn’t getting fantastic reviews while in theaters, but the central question is how much COVID-19 affected its box office performance.

Onward had the great misfortune of coming out just as lockdown was going into widespread effect, resulting in many movie theaters closing for the foreseeable future. To put it simply, there is no way this didn’t hurt the movie. While other Disney and Pixar movies have been huge hits since then, Onward signaled the start of a new era of box office struggles.

7

Wish (2023)

Grossed $225 Million Against $175 Million

Wish was supposed to be the touching centennial celebration for Disney but is universally considered to have fallen short of this goal. Wish‘s box office flop can be explained in part by the general challenges faced by post-COVID-19 movies when streaming options are hurting Disney animated movies’ earning potential. Wish was given a theatrical release on a holiday weekend, which in days past, would have been a guarantee of success when combined with the celebration of Disney’s 100th anniversary.

Many people probably just decided to wait until the movie arrived on Disney+. However, Wish‘s story wasn’t doing it any favors either. Most critics agreed that Wish was too reliant on the old Disney formula and offered nothing new, which was probably the point when the movie was supposed to be looking back over 100 years of filmmaking. However, this made for a boring movie in its own right.

6

Mars Needs Moms (2011)

Grossed $39.2 Million Against $150 Million Budget

Emerging as one of the biggest box office bombs of the 2010s, Mars Needs Moms definitely didn’t fit the bill of anything close to a typical Disney movie. The whole thing is too creepy and eerie, less in a Nightmare Before Christmas way and more in a true space horror way. Mars Needs Moms’ ultimate message is set up from minute one to be force-fed to the audience, showing a boy unappreciative of his mother who is put through a “be careful what you wish for” lesson when she is kidnapped by Martians.

Coraline pulled off this story just two years earlier with a Burton-reminiscent aesthetic. However, Mars Needs Moms doesn’t have the same interesting style and is filled with unlikable characters and unappealing animation. The story is basic and the design a mess of other sci-fi properties (and not very good ones), leading to its box office failure and terrible ratings (37% on Rotten Tomatoes).

5

A Christmas Carol (2009)

Grossed $325.3 Million Against $200 Million Budget

Like Mars Needs Moms, A Christmas Carol‘s animation dips into the uncanny valley, which probably hurt it more considering the story it was telling. A Christmas Carol has been remade several times over, twice by Disney itself — the Muppets version and the Mickey Mouse version. This remake was something that definitely did not need to happen, with there being no real reason to change it to a somewhat realistic animation style.

A Christmas Carol‘s reviews are actually decent, showing how its problem was more with marketability than the core story.

Disney might have tried to advertise this as a new, more serious take on A Christmas Carol than the studio’s earlier iterations; a return to the story’s ghostly origins. However, it came across as pointless, especially when it is another example of a movie that doesn’t fit neatly within Disney’s branding. A Christmas Carol‘s reviews are actually decent, showing how its problem was more with marketability than the core story.

4

Turning Red (2022)

Grossed $21.8 Million Against $175 Million Budget

Turning Red has a lot going for it, conveying a relatable story about being an awkward teenager and struggling to connect with her family through the lens of an absolutely wacky, exaggerated style. Turning Red‘s design perfectly represents the world as Mei sees it, mainly through the aesthetic of boy bands marketed towards her age range. The movie received a lot of praise for the depiction of the family and friend dynamics, as well as Mei wholeheartedly defending her teenage interests.

Sadly, Turning Red was another victim of lockdown. Disney decided to forgo a theatrical release amid remaining restrictions in early 2022 and release the movie via streaming, which did not make it nearly as much money as it should have. They might have hoped that the movie would increase subscriptions, but more than likely, everyone who felt they needed a Disney+ subscription to pᴀss the time during lockdown already had one.

3

Strange World (2022)

Grossed $73.6 Million Against $100-200 Million Budget

Reports differ on exactly how much Strange World cost to make, but ᴅᴇᴀᴅline concludes that it lost Disney nearly $200 million. Strange World concluded a year of box office failures for Disney, perhaps representing ongoing issues due to streaming vs. theatrical releases. On the other hand, maybe people were just tired of lackluster Disney movies by the end of 2022. Strange World also received average but generous reviews and saw some more success on Disney+.

One of its biggest problems was that it came out within weeks of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It is safe to say that interest in this movie was much higher, while Disney struggled to effectively advertise both of them. Strange World had a quiet, unremarkable release towards the end of 2022, which resulted in an astounding loss for the company.

2

Meet The Robinsons (2007)

Grossed $170 Million Against $150 Million Budget

Meet the Robinsons is an off-beat, Disney time-travel adventure, showcasing the studio’s experimentation with 3D animation before fully committing to it. Meet the Robinsons, Mars Needs Moms, and Strange World are indicative of Disney struggling with animated sci-fi in general, when the company’s origins are in fantasy and all three of these movies are too derivative. However, Meet the Robinsons has a decent emotional storyline about letting go of the past and looking to the future, allowing it a strong afterlife following its commercial failure.

However, Meet the Robinsons’ box office flop immediately resulted in Disney canceling plans for Meet the Robinsons 2. It failed to find its footing, possibly because people still only saw 3D as Pixar’s specialty. Overall, the 2000s marked a crossroads for Disney in terms of what animation style it would use going forward; only Tangled and Frozen’s successes would finally make 3D the Disney standard.

1

Treasure Planet (2002)

Grossed $110 Million Against $140 Million Budget

Treasure Planet features the ambitious premise of recasting Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island in a sci-fi setting. Different reports suggest that Disney might only have lost $85 million from it, but it is likely much higher (Yahoo!). The movie is primarily rendered in 2D animation, it also experiments with some 3D. While this looks incredible and elevates the setting, it unfortunately racked up production costs, making Treasure Planet an even bigger box office bomb.

Treasure Planet has come to be loved for its artistic style, proving again that profits are not everything when it comes to good movies.

Treasure Planet is one of Disney’s most expensive failures when the precocious state of animation in the 2000s complicated production and marketing. It was also released within the same time frame as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which proved to be impossible compeтιтion. However, Treasure Planet has come to be loved for its artistic style, proving again that profits are not everything when it comes to good movies.

How Animated Flops Compare To Disney’s Live Action Bombs

Disney is not infallible when it comes to live-action movies either, as a number of their original films, as well as their live-action remakes, have also flopped throughout the years. The two most notable live-action flops from Disney are certainly John Carter and The Lone Ranger, as they just happen to be the two biggest flops in movie history, a list that only a handful of Disney animated movies are even on. John Carter lost $255 million while The Lone Ranger lost $240 million, with Treasure Island being the only one to come close to those.

Even Disney’s live-action remakes have been hit or miss in the past several years after it initially looked like the studio’s decision to remake their classic animated films would always pay off. Snow White is likely the most notable one, as it looks like it will fail to even reach its steep production budget of $269 million, a catastrophic outcome for one of Disney’s most iconic films. Alongside that, Alice Through the Looking Glᴀss was also another flop after its predecessor made over a billion dollars, showing the desire for live-action Disney remakes won’t always be high.

Source: Yahoo!, The Hollywood Reporter, Cinemablend, ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, SlashFilm, TheWrap, Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation In Its Golden Age by Michael Barrier, The Hollywood Reporter (2)