Take a look at the biggest movies of the year and you'll notice one thing: Disney absolutely dominates. Already in 2019, it has grossed more than € 8 billion (about £ 6 billion) at the global box office, thanks to the remakes of Aladdin and Lion King, as well as the follow-up film to Toy. Pixar's Story 4, and of course, the massive cultural event that was Avengers: Endgame.
This figure is expected to rise further. Before the end of the year, the company will also release Frozen 2 and a small movie called Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Disney should also push the small screen further with the launch of the Disney Plus streaming service. In simple terms, Mickey's house is unstoppable.
This dominance is not an accident or the result of some lucky maneuvering: it is the result of a calculated technological and commercial innovation that has lasted almost a century in the life of the Walt Disney Company. So join us as we examine some of the smartest initiatives that have made Disney's movie business so powerful.
Early childhood: a pioneering animation
Steamboat Willie was a defining moment for Disney, and animation in general.
(Image credit: Disney)
Disney began life as an animation studio, and with its third film, Steamboat Wilie in 1928, it showed how the company would continue to use technological innovation to build audience loyalty.
The 7 minute 46 second film was actually the third film to star Mickey Mouse, but what makes it remarkable is that it was the first to use what was called "synchronized sound" - the then-revolutionary idea of having a track of audio that corresponds to what it was before. is displayed on the screen.
In the early 1930s, Disney first experimented with color movies, using a technology known as "technicolor." It was a process in which a subject, human or animation cell, was simultaneously filmed through three color filters (red, green, and blue) on three separate film strips. Disney was not the first company to use this technology, but perhaps it is thanks to it that the success was greater.
In 1934, the company published Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which briefly became the greatest movie of all time, before GM's release with The Wind of MGM in 1939. Also in the 1940s, while Europe was busy. waging war, Disney continued to make films that would become classics, such as Pinnochio and Fantasia in 1940, Dumbo in 1941, and Bambi in 1942.
(Image credit: Disney)
After the war, the company continued to produce more classic animated films such as Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty. The other great development of this era was the opening of Disneyland California.
But it wasn't right: Sleeping Beauty really lost money because it was so expensive to make. But that's where Disney got away with the advent of another new technology: xeroxography.
If you're wondering what xeroxography is, it's basically the ability to photocopy cells (celluloid sheets) for animation purposes, so you don't need to redraw and paint every cell. And it happened at the right time, while Disney was working on 101 Dalmations. Without this, Disney would have had to deal with the costly nightmare of having to hand-animate, too, 101 different dogs on screen.
The 80s and 90s: Home Video and The Vault Disney
(Image credit: Disney)
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a dramatic change in the way viewers used Disney content. The advent of home video meant that viewers could theoretically access Disney's unrivaled animation library at any time.
In theory, anyway. The reality was quite different.
Historically, Disney has followed a strategy of reissuing its movies in theaters every few years. It was a good thing for viewers, because that meant in a pre-video era, they could watch movies that they had missed the first time, and it was also a good deal because the time-limited rerun would create a promotional buzz.
Regarding home video, Disney made a decision that might seem strange: It would only sell a few movies for a short time before removing them again.
He called this concept the "Disney Vault" and created this artificial scarcity to maximize hype in a world increasingly experiencing a very early form of "on demand," while the increased distribution of VHS videotapes allowed to watch movies anywhere. moment. Someone wanted to see them.
(Image credit: Disney)
It was also at this time that Disney experienced an animation renaissance, with a multitude of incredibly beloved and popular films released in theaters. Under the direction of Michael Eisner, CEO, between 1989 and 1994, the company published The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King, which remain classics today.
But it was in 1995 that technology really changed again in the field of animation: Toy Story became the first complete computer-generated movie and it was a huge success, both commercially and critically. In fact, this has served as a model for animation for the next two decades. So perhaps it was unfortunate that while Disney was distributing the film, it was not the owner of the studio that had made it: Pixar.
At least not yet.
The 2000s: the force awakens
(Image credit: Lucasfilm)
Only when current CEO Bob Iger took office in 2005 did Disney really begin to enter the imperial phase. In just a few years, Iger has fueled transactions that have led Disney to gobble up Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, and most recently 21st Century Fox.
At the time, they might have come across as a big gamble given the amounts invested, but today, they're widely regarded as acts of strategic engineering. Why? Because Iger realized that in a world of broadcast technology where no company can control the distribution mechanism, the real value is not in the pipes or the airwaves, but in the intellectual property.
In other words, by keeping the world's biggest entertainment brands, the public will pay for them, even through a direct subscription to Disney Plus. And the logic is good: As transformative as Netflix was, if you want to watch Star Wars, you won't accept Netflix's Lost In Space reboot as a substitute. Instead, you'll take out your credit card and start paying Disney directly.
So, nibbling on Marvel, Pixar, and Lucas and sitting in a library containing just about every favorite animation from the last hundred years, Disney has a lot of our cultural touchstones, like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV Plus, or more. Imminent broadcast competitors may not touch.
Bob Iger has been the CEO of Disney since 2005 and has overseen a significant expansion of online streaming.
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
One point that shows how smart Disney is adapting to this new era and why it will continue to dominate in the future: Unlike Netflix, Disney Plus doesn't need to make money.
Why? As Matthew Ball, former head of Amazon Video pointed out, Disney is not too desperate to get the money from subscribers, which is clear from the € 6.99 / 8 subscription plan. € 99 AU (about € 5.50) per month. . It is more interesting to sell you a € 5,000 Disney cruise (€ 3,890 / AU € 7,430), a trip to Disney World or get your Disney Princess and Marvel Children's Toys; that's where you find the real money.
In the end, if Disney dominates today and will continue to dominate our culture in the future, it is because it is a comfortable company to play with. the long game
Instead of spending an extra dollar today, you want to make sure that when you're 80 and want to spend time with your grandkids in the hologram-plex, you choose to take them with you for I don't see any old movies. , but Jaden Smith, digitally dematerialized, playing Obi-Wan Kenobi in the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise. And the evidence suggests that we will.