The surprising box office success of PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie this past weekend has an important lesson that Disney needs to learn to avoid repeating its recent failures in the future. A sequel to 2021’s PAW Patrol: The Movie, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie sees the titular characters gaining superpowers from the pups’ crystals and using those powers to put a stop to a nefarious plot spearheaded by Mayor Humdinger and his new partner-in-crime Victoria Vance. The movie has been praised by critics as a fun, charming, lighthearted animated adventure and families have responded by showing up to theaters and buying tickets.
In a weekend that saw the original sci-fi actioner The Creator and the GameStop-based true-life dramedy Dumb Money flop at the box office, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie has emerged as a resounding financial success. The film has already made back its production budget in just one weekend and is well on the way to turning a healthy profit for the studios. The commercial success of the new PAW Patrol movie is no fluke, and Disney should look at this success as a teachable moment if it wants to avoid any more failures like its many underwhelming releases from the past couple of years.
How PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie’s Box Office Compares To Recent Disney/Pixar Films
Recent Disney and Pixar releases have struggled at the box office. Strange World, the last production of former hit factory Walt Disney Animation Studios, had a worldwide opening of $27.8 million, and went on to become one of the biggest box office bombs of all time. The latest Pixar movie, Elemental, made a little more in its opening weekend – $44.5 million – but it was still considered a disappointment. Thanks to positive word of mouth and a boost from overseas markets, Elemental ended up having very strong legs that saved it from being a box office disaster, but its low opening figures still show that Pixar is struggling to attract audiences.
By comparison, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie has made $47.5 million in its opening weekend, and on a much lower budget than Strange World and Elemental. The new PAW Patrol film has gotten a box office boost from its franchise familiarity and the fact that it’s a sequel. But even its predecessor performed better than Strange World, with a lower opening weekend and an even smaller budget. PAW Patrol: The Movie grossed $144 million against a $26 million budget, albeit during the summer season when movies typically perform better. Clearly, the PAW Patrol team is doing something right, and the teams at Disney and Pixar should be taking notes.
Why Disney & Pixar Have Struggled – And What They Can Learn From Movies Like PAW Patrol
In recent years, Disney and Pixar have struggled because they’ve been playing to the nostalgia of older audiences, much to their detriment. One of Disney’s biggest flops of the year was Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which targeted audiences who have been going to the movies since the ‘80s. Pixar suffered one of its biggest box office bombs with the release of Lightyear in 2022, a spin-off from its most popular franchise, Toy Story, which was supposedly the film that made Andy want a Buzz Lightyear action figure in the first place. The nostalgia for these franchises means very little to today’s kids.
On top of that, some of the recent Disney and Pixar films have been going too deep or dark for younger viewers. Lightyear deals with the same time dilation themes as Interstellar, with the heavy dramatic twist of an astronaut outliving his closest loved ones. This is a perfect example of an animated movie that isn’t for kids and, as a result, tanked at the box office. That’s not to say they can’t make movies for kids and adults – Pixar’s success is built on appealing to audiences of all ages – but there’s a sense of ignoring the first part of that and alienating younger viewers.
Disney’s big summer release for 2024 is Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel to the live-action remake of The Lion King. Since The Lion King is a ‘90s property, it appeals mostly to older viewers and not so much to younger viewers. Looking at the most recent hit animated movies, there’s a clear pattern that they’ve all been kid-driven. The Super Mario Bros. Movie had nostalgia, but it was silly fun for kids, too. The Minions movies have turned targeting kids into a billion-dollar formula. PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is absolutely for kids, and is going to be a big success (again, a lower budget helps here, of course).
Can Upcoming Disney & Pixar Movies Restore Their Box Office Glory?
Disney and Pixar have a few upcoming movies that could potentially restore their box office glory. Pixar has Inside Out 2 coming out next year, a sequel to one of its most beloved movies, which should make a nice profit for the studio. When Bob Iger was reinstated as the CEO of Disney, he was quick to greenlight Frozen 3, Zootopia 2, and Toy Story 5 for development. Clearly, the Mouse House is focusing on its biggest and most popular properties and making movies with the best chances of success (even though there’s no such thing as a sure-fire hit in Hollywood).
Toy Story 5 is the biggest and best example of a movie that can save Disney’s box office performance, since it’ll attract both nostalgic older fans and Forky-loving younger fans – not to mention all the merchandising potential of a movie that’s literally about toys. However, since the Toy Story franchise already ended definitively with Toy Story 3, then Pixar got audiences back for Toy Story 4 with another supposedly definitive ending, some moviegoers might not come back for a third ending. A similar thing happened with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the third definitive conclusion of a franchise that ran out of steam decades ago.
Disney has a new original animated movie, Wish, coming out in November on the heels of PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie. Based on the film’s delightful trailer, it will undoubtedly appeal to kids, who will demand that their parents take them to see it over the holiday season. But since it has no attachment to existing I.P., it might not be a huge success on the level of Minions or Mario. The same goes for Pixar’s next film before Inside Out 2, an original science fiction story called Elio, which looks like a lot of fun but might not reach blockbuster numbers at the box office.
