After seeing Maleficent in 2014, Cinderella in 2015, The Jungle Book in 2016, and Beauty and the Beast in 2017, I started to wonder if Disney would ever stop remaking their classic content and create some new content. With original ideas being created like Frozen and its upcoming sequel, Frozen 2 later this year, it's not like Disney is completely out of original ideas. So why are they remaking films that have already been successful? The answer is right there, they were already successful. With the upcoming Dumbo, Lion King, and Aladdin live action remakes, it is only becoming clearer that Disney will continue down this remake path.
Once upon a time, Walt Disney said "We don't make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies". The romantic sentiment of that statement is wonderful. The original goal of the Disney company was seemingly to make art, even if it almost caused them bankruptcy, an incredibly noble pursuit to bring more culture into the world. However, this idealism ended under the guidance of Disney's last CEO, Michael Eisner. From his reign onwards, the Disney company has changed its tune, in a way that may help to explain why live action remakes are suddenly all the rage. This statement from Eisner alone encapsulates what Disney's goals have been in the past couple decades.
"The pursuit of making money is the only reason to make movies. We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art, or some significant statement. To make money, it may be important to win the Academy Award, for it might mean another ten million dollars at the box office".
Michael Eisner was the head of Disney from 1984 to 2005, which is when Disney hit its stride and created some of the most beloved animated classics of all time. The Renaissance of The Walt Disney Company. So how could this ideology of money making be so bad if it created all this good? Well, at the same time, it made a lot of garbage. Every amazing Disney classic from the 1980's to the 2000's was accompanied by one, or multiple, terrible direct to home video sequels. These movies were not good, but they did make money. With tiny budgets, but with lots of good faith created by the original movie, direct to home video sequels could turn a tidy profit. For example, The Return of Jafar cost roughly $3 million to make and brought in $100 million. Here, Disney learned that by creating more content that people seemed to like, they could make more money, instead of making new content which had the potential to fail.
I am not pointing out this cash grabbing method to complain about Disney and denounce the system. I am not saying that Disney should not be out to make money. But I am saying that Disney is seemingly exclusively out to make money and some people seem to believe the opposite. Do not be mistaken into believing that these live action remakes are being made because a company wants to bring the magic to a new generation, because that new generation could just watch the originals. (Though at least Disney has ended its ridiculous "Vault"). Do not believe that Disney is trying to make the world a better place somehow by remaking older movies. They learned how to make reliable money under Michael Eisner and they will continue doing that under the current CEO, Bob Igner. It is a company and will act as a company does to increase its value and make sure that people keep spending their money. Just know how frighteningly huge Disney is now and be aware that they're not in it for the nostalgia, they're here for the money.
