Disney is renowned for its animation, but the company has still seen animated movies flop at the box office. Many of the earlybest Disney animated moviesperformed 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 competition and higher standards.
Manybox 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.Themost underrated Disney moviesare 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.
Domestic gross
Worldwide total
Estimated loss
$50,030,461
$145,358,062
$5,300,000
$27,931,461
$47,400,000
$123,087,120
$332,207,671
$21,289,084
$38,176,783
$110,041,363
$97,822,171
$169,333,034
$137,855,863
$325,286,646
$21,392,758
$39,233,678
$150 Million (THR)
$61,555,145
$141,940,042
$1,399,001
$21,813,358
$118,307,188
$226,425,420
$37,968,963
$73,621,640
$63,973,821
$254,997,360
Home On The Range
Cast
Home on the Range follows three cows Maggie, Grace and Mrs Caloway who take on a mission to stop their home from being taken away when their dairy farm is served an eviction notice. Forming a team with the Sheriff’s horse, they set out to collect the ransom on cattle rustler Alameda Slim to take their fate into their own hands.
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, isone 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 toboxofficemojo.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 Disneyin general. In addition toHome on the Range, the company also had two other box office bombs, though the other two were live-action movies:HidalgoandThe Alamo. Both movies failed to make a splash. So, too, did the Disney animated TV adaptation ofTeacher’s Petfor the big screen.Home on the Rangeended up forgotten in a sea of Disney box office losses.
Today,Sleeping Beautyis regarded as a Disney Princess classic. It, however, was not as beloved upon its release asSnow White and the Seven DwarfsorCinderella. In fact, in its initial box office return, according to research from Michael Barrier’s bookHollywood Cartoons: American Animation In Its Golden Age, the movie did not even make its budget back.
In 1959,Sleeping Beautywas the most expensive animated movie Disney had produced. In fact,it was twice as expensive as the animated movies released right before it, likePeter 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.
Every Animated Disney Movie Ranked From Worst To Best
From Snow White to Ralph Wrecks the Internet, and everything in between, here are all of Disney’s animated movies, ranked.
The loss presented bySleeping Beautycontributed to the studio leaning even more into live-action projects over the next few years. Of course, since that original release,Sleeping Beautyhas returned to theaters multiple times and has a much larger worldwide gross than that initial box office would suggest.Sleeping Beautyhas amassed more than $51 million at the box office over time.
Pinocchio
Gepetto, an old Italian carpenter, wanted to be a father so badly that his puppet of a boy came to life. However, the wooden boy doesn’t know right from wrong and his nose grows when he lies.
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 thanSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as Disney’s first animated feature film. WhenPinocchiowas first released to theaters in 1940, Disney was expecting success at the box office on par withSnow 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 likeSleeping Beautyand most of the classic Disney animated features,Pinocchiohas 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 likeSleeping Beautyand most of the classic Disney animated features,Pinocchiohas 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.
The Rescuers Down Under
The Rescuers Down Under follows heroic mice Miss Bianca and Bernard as they travel to Australia to thwart a poacher who has kidnapped a boy to locate a rare golden eagle. Assisted by bumbling albatross Wilbur and field operative Jake the Kangaroo Rat, they embark on a daring rescue mission.
The Rescuersproved 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 sequelwhen 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.
The Good Dinosaurmarked one of the many Disney-Pixar collaborations. Though the official budget was not made public.The Hollywood Reporterestimated 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 failuredespite making over $332 million dollars at the box office.
The movie debuted the same year asInside 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, andInside Outwas certainly much more successfulas audiences were drawn to the unique concept instead.Inside Outended up making over $850 million at the box office against a similar budget.
The Black Cauldron
The Black Cauldron is an animated fantasy film from Walt Disney Studios, directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich. Released in 1985, it follows the young hero Taran and his quest to prevent the evil Horned King from obtaining a powerful magical relic known as the Black Cauldron. Featuring the voices of Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, and John Hurt, the film combines elements of adventure, mystery, and dark fantasy.
The Black Cauldronis the archetypical"black sheep"of the Disney lineup,too dark and too strange to land with audiencesthat were accustomed to the most traditional Disney formula at the time. With appreciation for the movie growing with time, some now argue that aBlack Cauldronremake could be a great horror movie. However, at the time,The Black Cauldronwas 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, andThe Black Cauldronis considered the movie that almost ended the animation department once and for all(viaSlashFilm). 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 whenThe Little Mermaidkicked off the Disney Renaissance.
Lightyear
Disney Pixar branches the Toy Story franchise off with Lightyear, a story that centers around a human version of the Buzz Lightyear toy and his missions with Star command. Set during an exploration mission, Lightyear and his crew are attacked during a scouting mission by alien lifeforms and find themselves stranded on an unknown planet. To help get everyone home, Lightyear volunteers on a dangerous mission to test pilot their means home. However, each test light passes time and the characters age in his absence.
Lightyearwas not the movie the iconic character deserved, wasting its biggest points of nostalgia and coming to an unsatisfying conclusion. Pete Doctor said regardingLightyear’s failure (viaTheWrap):
“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.”
Lightyearis a tonally strange and even grim movie if people come expecting a continuation ofToy Story. For that matter,Lightyearlikely also struggled by comparison: Even if one wants to argue that it is a redeemable movie, it is still not as good as theworstToy Storymovie.
Lightyearcame 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.
Onward
Pixar’s Onward takes place in a land filled with mythical creatures. It concerns the story of brothers Ian (Tom Holland) and Barley (Chris Pratt), who learn that their long-lost father had unlocked the ancient power of magic, something long rendered obsolete by technological advances. The brothers learn they have just 24 hours to resurrect their father and set off on a magical quest across the land to reunite their family.
Onwardis also not one ofPixar’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.Onwardexplores 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.Onwardwasn’t getting fantastic reviews while in theaters, but the central question is how muchCOVID-19 affected its box office performance.
10 Biggest Disney Box Office Disasters
Disney has amassed billions with its live-action remakes and animated musicals, but the studio also has tons of bombs that it would rather forget.
Onwardhad 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,Onwardsignaled the start of a new era of box office struggles.
Wish
Wish is a Disney animated adventure/fantasy comedy that follows Asha, a young girl from the kingdom of Rosas who wants nothing more than to care for the people of her home. One night, Rosa takes a chance to wish upon a star - only to invite a bit of chaos when her prayers are somewhat answered by an energetic cosmic entity known as Star. Together with her goat and this new friend, they’ll set off to save the kingdom from an ambitious king.
Wishwas 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 explainedin part by the general challenges faced by post-COVID-19 movies when streaming options are hurting Disney animated movies' earning potential.Wishwas 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 thatWishwas 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.
Mars Needs Moms
Mars Needs Moms is an animated sci-fi movie based on a book by Berkeley Breathed. Known for being a box office bomb, the 2011 Disney film follows a young boy named Milo who goes on a mission to rescue his mother from Martians who have kidnapped her to raise their own children.
Emerging as one of the biggest box office bombs of the 2010s,Mars Needs Momsdefinitely didn’t fit the bill of anything close to a typical Disney movie.The whole thing is too creepy and eerie, less in aNightmare Before Christmasway 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.
Coralinepulled off this story just two years earlier with a Burton-reminiscent aesthetic. However,Mars Needs Momsdoesn’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).
