Disney has spent the last eight years ignoring the perfect animated movie franchise, even though Big Hero 6 was a major box office hit. Disney has had an increased focus on franchises in all departments of its movie studios over the last few decades. Whether it was the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, relaunching Star Wars, remaking animated classics in live-action, or expanding Disney’s animated movies, they have all played parts in creating new franchises. In most cases, it is easy to see why Disney decided to move forward with franchise plans for certain movies and ignore other opportunities.
Animated movies, in particular, have been a great resource for Disney when it comes to launching new franchises. The familial appeal of animated movies like Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, and Zootopia has resulted in each of them becoming franchises with at least one sequel already made or in the pipeline. Many others have attempted to birth new live-action franchises, with Moana forgoing sequel opportunities for a live-action remake. All of these decisions are understandable, but Disney ignoring a major box office hit like Big Hero 6 does not when considering its franchise potential.
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Big Hero 6 Is Disney’s Highest Grossing Animated Movie Without A Sequel
Released in 2016, Big Hero 6 was a big box office success for Disney. The animated movie made $657 million at the worldwide box office off a $165 million budget (per Box Office Mojo). This performance by Big Hero 6 is notable because it should mean that the movie was profitable for Walt Disney Animation Studios since it made nearly four times as much as it cost to make. But, what really makes Disney’s Big Hero 6 sequel decision confusing is that it is Disney’s highest grossing animated movie that has not received a sequel.
The only Walt Disney Animation Studios movies that have ever made more than Big Hero 6 at the box office are Frozen, Frozen II, and Zootopia. Frozen already got its sequel, and Frozen II‘s success means that Frozen 3 is already confirmed. Meanwhile, Disney confirmed plans for Zootopia 2 following the film’s $1 billion performance at the box office. Moana has passed Big Hero 6 at the box office years after its release thanks to making over $40 million extra through international re-releases, but it was originally a lower performer and thus not factored into this statistic.
Big Hero 6‘s box office performance was certainly strong enough to warrant a sequel. Disney’s decisions with other movies prove that to be true. Two years before Big Hero 6‘s release, Disney saw Wreck-It Ralph make $471 million. It was produced for the same budget as Big Hero 6, and yet a sequel, Ralph Breaks The Internet, came out in 2018. The six-year gap between installments of a lower-grossing franchise has been surpassed by the animated superhero movie.
Big Hero 6 Was Perfectly Set Up To Be A Major New Franchise For Disney
The other oddity of Disney’s decision not to make a Big Hero 6 sequel movie is that it was perfectly set up to become a franchise. It had the box office performance to necessitate another movie being made, and Big Hero 6‘s ending and worldbuilding also left room to expand the Big Hero 7 story. More adventures by Baymax, Hiro Hamada, and their friends would be easy to create. Disney proved this with the decision to make a sequel animated show Big Hero 6: The Series, which ran for three seasons from 2017 to 2021.
Big Hero 6: The Series effectively filled the void of what a Big Hero 6 sequel could be. The show brought back almost all the main cast members to voice the major characters. It also tackled Hiro and the Big Hero 6 team’s attempts to protect San Fransokyo from a variety of villains. This makes the series a proof of concept that even Disney believed that Big Hero 6 was worthy of revisiting, just not on the big screen apparently. That is a confusing conclusion to come to considering how well-received and successful the original movie was in 2014.
Why Disney Hasn’t Made A Big Hero 6 Sequel Yet
Disney has never formally put a Big Hero 6 sequel into development. Co-director Don Hall stated in an interview published during the film’s opening weekend with Creative Screenwriting that “we haven’t talked about or thought about any sequels or anything like that.” Hall and Chris Williams instead shifted their focus to directing Moana, while Hall then also directed Raya and the Last Dragon and Strange World for Walt Disney Animation Studios. He then told Comicbook in 2022 that “no, there’s been no discussions about that” when asked about a Big Hero 6 sequel coming.
Instead of attempting to make a new Big Hero 6 movie, Disney has opted to keep the franchise’s exposure to the small screen. A Baymax Disney+ series of shorts was released in 2022. The shorts are another indication that Disney has not completely forgotten about the Big Hero 6 franchise, even if its big screen franchise potential is still being ignored. Perhaps with Disney’s animated movies consistently struggling at the box office, returning to a seemingly bankable piece of IP like Big Hero 6 could be reconsidered soon.
Sources: Box Office Mojo, Creative Screenwriting, Comicbook
