The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2020–2023
Wish: Disney's centennial film cost $175–200M, opened to $19.5M, lost $131M
Disney Animation's centennial film opened to $19.5M, grossed $255M worldwide, and Deadline counted a $131M net loss.
Walt Disney Animation Studios · 2023-11-22
What happened
Wish — Walt Disney Animation Studios' 100th-anniversary film, directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn — was built to celebrate the studio's legacy: an original fairy tale in the classic style, with music written to evoke the Disney songbook. It cost $175–200 million to make.
Released November 22, 2023, it opened to $19.5 million — one of the weakest Thanksgiving openings in Disney Animation's history — and closed with $64 million domestically and $255 million worldwide. Reviews were mixed and the film's tribute-heavy framing drew criticism for feeling like a celebration rather than a story.
Deadline's annual cost analysis put the net loss at $131 million even after counting streaming and home-entertainment income, one of the biggest bombs of 2023. The centennial film — meant to honor a century of Disney animation — instead became the studio's most expensive misfire of the year.
Why it happened
- The film was a marketing brief: made to celebrate Disney's centennial, Wish prioritized nostalgia references over a story audiences could own.
- The anniversary framing invited the comparison the film could not survive: every classic Disney fairy tale it referenced raised the bar, and mixed reviews read as 'lesser Disney'.
- Disney priced an original fairy tale like a sure thing: at $175–200M with a November tentpole slot, the studio bet the centennial brand alone would carry an unknown story.
The lesson
A centennial film is a marketing brief, not a movie: Wish cost $175–200M to celebrate Disney, opened to $19.5M, and lost $131M — nostalgia does not buy an opening weekend.
Sources
- Deadline — Disney Detonates Four Bombs In Deadline's 2023 Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament
- Wikipedia — Wish (film)
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning: a $400M budget against a $598M gross
Pixar's Elio — an original animated film that cost $200M+ and grossed $154M
The Alto Knights: a $50M mob film that grossed $9.6M
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.