Now that we’re six years in, Disney+ looks like it’s doing pretty well — at face value. The platform finally became profitable in 2024, with 128 million subscribers reported as of the end of June 2025. Combine that with a renewed effort from Disney to focus more on quality than quantity, as well as the recent news that Hulu is being fully integrated into the Disney+ app, and everything would seem to be headed in a positive direction. However, there’s no mistaking the damage that Disney+ has done to the company’s three biggest brands: Star Wars, Pixar, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Yes, there have been some big hits. “The Mandalorian” gave the platform a strong start in the big-budget original series department, and “WandaVision” kept that going from the Marvel side of things. But what followed was an extended period of crowded releases with middling critical receptions, all of which served to undermine reputations that took years and years to construct.
The Star Wars franchise has been out of theaters for six years now, and while that’s partially due to the tepid response to the last movie, it’s also because of a streaming effort that produced one monstrously huge hit (the aforementioned “The Mandalorian”), one critical darling (“Andor”), and a number of expensive experiments that have had mixed results. In Marvel’s case, too many spin-offs caused casual fans to drop off in the post-“Avengers: Endgame” landscape, with MCU lead architect Kevin Feige believing in retrospect that people were intimidated by the sense of needing to see everything to understand anything. Pixar’s plight might be the saddest of all: What was once one of the most prestigious studios of 21st century Hollywood was relegated to years of streaming releases with little to no real coverage or marketing support.
Disney invested hard in streaming (& it’s paying the price)
In the early years of Disney+, every new streaming platform was putting all of its resources into building out original content libraries as quickly as possible. It was a race for market share, and Disney made a big push to prioritize original content from its biggest brands. You could call it a gold rush. Consider “Andor,” a high-concept Star Wars spin-off that cost a gargantuan $645 million across two seasons. While “Andor” topped the Nielsen streaming chart with its finale, and most fans are incredibly grateful that such an excellent show stumbled into a period of massive spending, such a project would likely never be approved today due to the cost and more niche angle.
The closing of movie theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic only pushed Disney further into streaming, as it became the only viable release model for a time. And while early shows gained attention, viewership dropped off steadily over the years, with later series like “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” or Marvel’s “Secret Invasion” being largely passed over (and even, in the case of “Secret Invasion,” ignored by its follow-up film “The Marvels”).
On the Pixar side of things, theatrical fallout from the pandemic led to major struggles for a studio that was once a guaranteed hit machine. Pixar employees privately spoke out against how Disney was forcing their movies onto Disney+, and even when the studio did return to theaters, it wasn’t the same: While 2023’s “Elemental” eventually went from near-flop to notable success thanks to positive word-of-mouth, and 2024’s “Inside Out 2” smashed box office records, 2025’s “Elio” released to a dismal performance, showing that new IPs from Pixar are no longer so secure.
Disney+ may be turning things around, but is it too late?
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige addressed this devaluing of the major Disney brands at a recent press event, speaking specifically from the Marvel Cinematic Universe side of things. “The expansion is what devalued [the Marvel brand],” Feige said (via The Wrap). “It was just too much. It was a big company push. And it doesn’t take too much to push us to go. There was a mandate that we were put in the middle of.”
Clearly, Marvel wasn’t the only part of Disney given those marching orders. In more recent months, CEO Bob Iger has emphasized a return to higher-quality content, restricting project approvals and keeping budgets in check. Since Disney+ is now actually making money, the ship could be seen as righted. But the reputational damage to properties as big as Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar can be difficult to undo.
2025’s Marvel movies, which included “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts*,” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” haven’t performed at the level of past hits in the franchise. That said, 2025 was a bad year for theatrical turnout across the board, “Fantastic Four” did manage to profit in the end, and the MCU is now building toward the potentially game-changing return of Robert Downey Jr. in “Avengers: Doomsday.” Star Wars has cancelled numerous theatrical projects over the last several years, and while “The Mandalorian & Grogu” is set to premiere on May 22, 2026, many years have passed since the show’s first season generated new casual interest in the franchise — some may see the film as too little, too late. Pixar, meanwhile, will next hit theaters this March with the original IP “Hoppers.”
