Disney Toppled From Top Spot as Highest-Grossing Studio at Box Office

The Disney logo is displayed outside the Disney Store in Times Square in New York on Dec. 14, 2017. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Disney has been knocked off its perch as Hollywood’s top-grossing studio at the box office in 2023 by Universal, according to reports.

Last year, the two entertainment giants battled for supremacy in movie theaters, with reports from Variety and Hollywood Reporter indicating that Universal managed to edge out Disney in both domestic and offshore revenue.

Universal, which released 24 movies in 2023, generated an estimated $4.91 billion in worldwide ticket sales, per the reports.

Disney, by contrast, issued 17 titles last year, bringing in $4.83 billion.

“Being the No. 1 studio globally for seven consecutive years out of the last eight is pretty remarkable by any measure and is something of which we are all incredibly proud,” Disney chief of global distribution Tony Chambers told the Hollywood Reporter.

Domestically, Universal also came out ahead of Disney, managing to generate revenue of $1.94 billion compared with $1.9 billion.

In another disappointment for Disney, the studio failed to break into the top three of 2023’s highest-grossing movies. That honor belonged to Warner Bros. and Universal: Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” brought in $1.4 billion, followed by Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with $1.3 billion and “Oppenheimer” at $950 million.

(L–R) Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in a scene from “The Marvels.” Laura Radford/Disney-Marvel Studios via AP

Controversy Rides High

Disney’s drop into second place comes in a year fraught with controversy for the entertainment giant over its long-running “woke” agenda.

In March 2022, Florida lawmakers passed HB 1557, or the Parental Rights in Education Act, which banned instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools for kindergarten through third grade.

The bill was later signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has pushed back against policies that he and other conservatives have described as radically progressive.

The same day that Mr. DeSantis signed the bill, Disney waded into the controversy, issuing a statement that expressed the company’s full-throated opposition to the measure.

“Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law,” the statement read. It also noted that it was the company’s goal “for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts.”

Supporters of the legislation have argued that it gives parents more power to decide how and when topics relating to LGBT issues can be introduced to their children. It also gives parents the opportunity to sue school districts for violating the rules set out in the legislation.

The DeSantis–Disney dispute continued into 2023. Mr. DeSantis ended a decades-long deal allowing Disney World to govern its vast Central Florida resort by itself in February 2023. The Republican governor said the action was aimed at holding Disney accountable.

“The corporate kingdom finally comes to an end,” he said in February 2023. “There’s a new sheriff in town, and accountability will be the order of the day.”

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to guests during a campaign rally at the Thunderdome in Newton, Iowa, on Dec. 2, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Some Democrats voiced opposition to the bill.

“This all seems a retaliation by the governor for Disney voicing its support for the LGBTQ community,” said state Sen. Linda Stewart (D-Orange County).

Disney on the Back Foot

After Disney expressed its opposition to the Florida parental rights bill and embarked on a culture war with Mr. DeSantis, the company faced boycott calls from parent groups and conservatives—and later lost billions in market value.

The company also faced streaming losses, and its stock was downgraded partly because of fears of lower attendance at its Disney World and Disneyland theme parks.

Crowd sizes at Disney’s theme parks and resorts were indeed relatively thin over the summer of 2023, a development that some conservatives saw as a sign that boycott calls were having an effect.

Halle Bailey attends the UK premiere of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” in London on May 15, 2023. Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney

The company also announced several rounds of layoffs in 2023, as Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed in February 2023 that he was looking to cut 7,000 jobs as part of efforts to slash costs by $5.5 billion.

Disney’s market capitalization on March 25, 2022, three days before its statement criticizing the parental rights law, stood at $253.3 billion. After falling sharply in the weeks since, it staged numerous minor rallies but has, on the whole, remained depressed, currently standing at $167.8 billion as of Jan. 3.

Recent financial documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that Disney expects its stock price to remain “volatile” as it acknowledged that it faces “risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, travel, and consumer products.”

Disney has produced a string of box office flops that critics denounced as woke, including “Strange World,” “Lightyear,” “The Marvels,” and the live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid.”

The company acknowledged in the filing that “revenues and profitability are adversely impacted” when their “entertainment offerings and products” don’t “achieve sufficient consumer acceptance.”