One of the many complaints about Disney is that it often seems too reliant on existing franchises, creating sequels, prequels, spin-offs, reboots, and more. 

Since the return of Bob Iger as the CEO, he’s committed to doubling down on these established franchises even more, as when the company was releasing new original content continuously, audiences weren’t responding as they would have liked. 

This also caused further problems at the company, as the entire business is based around taking a new movie or show and using it across their whole company, such as with merchandise and theme parks.

In 2024, two of the biggest films of the year, “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” have been sequels, which not only pulled in over a billion dollars each, but have also been huge successes on Disney+.  During a recent quarterly financial investors call, Bob Iger revealed that the release of these films also has additional benefits for them, especially with regards to Disney+ viewership, since interest in the franchise as a whole goes up.

One of the things that we’ve seen lately that is heartening is that when we have success in a feature film or even when there is expected success, the consumption of basically prior films – movies that have been made prior to the one that’s coming out, goes up, spikes significantly on the platform. So if you were to look at the numbers for Inside Out 1 as Inside Out 2’s trailer hit or what’s happening with the first Moana film or what’s happening with a number of Marvel properties since Deadpool & Wolverine came out. And I could go on and on. It’s quite interesting for us in terms of raising consumption.

Iger also explained how, over the next few years, its new film releases will continue to boost viewership of other titles available on Disney+.

So as we look ahead, I noticed some of the films in 2025, which is going to end with Zootopia and Avatar. And then you look at 2026 and you consider that we’ve got a Star Wars film, Mandalorian and Avengers film, a live-action version of Moana and on and on. We feel that one, we’re confident in our ability to execute those films in a way that will serve us well, both qualitatively and commercially; and two, we have a strong sense that they’re going to enable us to strengthen our streaming performance significantly as well as we’re currently seeing with the films that we’re putting out.

Roger’s Take:  It seems only natural that the release of a new film or show will have some benefit for Disney+ viewership; I know I went back and rewatched both “Deadpool” movies before I went to see “Deadpool & Wolverine”.  I’ll also be doing the same for “Moana” and the new Marvel films.  This is part of the whole corporate synergy thing that Disney does so well; it’s why they keep going back to existing franchises because it works.  They love making new original content and trying to create the next big franchise, but they have to balance it out.

Have you rewatched a film or show on Disney+ before its sequel has been released?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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