Was it foolish of Disney to remake so many of their most popular movies within the span of a few years. Just this year we got Dumbo, Aladdin, and Lion King. If they had spaced them out to maybe 1 or 2 a year, they might have each been received better; but now people are getting weary, and Disney’s greed is showing. But was it all done purposely? Maybe in a mad rush to the eventual endgame for the mouse house: the launch of Disney+.
Disney executives are surely under a lot of pressure to perform fast and successfully; they want to make the most money for the quarterly/yearly record-books and aren’t considering the long-term because the long-term is now. It seems as though this has, no doubt, irked the moviegoing public – there are now a lot more anti-Disney think-pieces around. By forcing its supply on moviegoers, oversaturation of the market is happening. Despite all that, the Mouse House is dominating the entertainment sphere; they have monopolized the current zeitgeist of mainstream movies by excelling at franchise-building and nostalgia.
In the long run, this has everything to do with their streaming service, which is either going to be a massive hit or will not be able to compete against Netflix — the latter of which is the ultimate goal for Disney. They know the future is in streaming and not in theaters. As we all know, Americans can only handle being subscribed to a few streaming channels. Most have Netflix, and then there’s Amazon, Hulu and HBO GO. Disney wants to surpass the latter and skyrocket to competition against Netflix, if that ever happens remains to be seen, but experts are predicting it might very well happen. This kind of control of the streaming platform is huge.
Between Marvel, Star Wars, the already the Disney catalog of live action and animation, and now Fox, one cannot underestimate the power of Disney+. But, be wary, the buying of all entertainment is Disney’s end goal, and it seems that with every passing year, they get closer and closer to that dream [Here's a link to what they own as of now] .
The barrage won’t end theatrically, either. A whole new Star Wars trilogy is being built from scratch (with Rian Johnson directing), The Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to enter its fourth phase of movies, Fox properties (Alien, Avatar, X-Men, Deadpool) are all preparing a stacked schedule of sequels/reboots, and Pixar is surely next in line to turn its animated classics into live action films. There is no knowing how far upwards this could go for Disney, but I hope Netflix is ready for war, because they will surely end up as the very last studio willing to promote creative freedom in the form of the adult drama, because Disney’s PG-13 mindset cannot go that route.