Disney is nothing if not faithful to the promises it keeps, even if the one made by Marvel Studios — in the most half-hearted fashion ever — is being completed by LEGO (of all companies you expected to rise to the challenge, the mega toy manufacturer would have been the last one). Perhaps it’s this misdirected (and belated) but still very much dedicated commitment to its promises that has won Disney 2023’s biggest box-office milestone despite the studio releasing a string of flops from Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny to Haunted Mansion.
But don’t be lulled into a false sense of security. Remember all the reasons that didn’t do the widely beloved Crater any good amid Disney’s cancelation and deletion spree? Turns out the film wasn’t a lone example (removed after a mere seven weeks) as more Disney projects are getting the Crater treatment — particularly a Disney series that quietly debuted four months ago and is running a higher risk of being shunned out of existence.
A coming-of-age comedy Disney series, by the youngest person to produce a studio film, peeks its head out of obscurity
Who knows that Disney Plus currently is the home to the comedy series, Saturdays, by Marsai Martin, who won numerous nominations and awards for her breakthrough performance in ABC’s Black-ish? The actress, who has starred and already produced (at age 13) Universal Pictures’ comedy Little, also produced the not-so-new Disney series which tells the sweet story of 14-year-old Paris Johnson and her friends as they work hard to perfect their skating routines to gain popularity in Chicago, Illinois.
But the series was released on Disney Plus on March 25 (a day after debuting on the Disney channel), and it has been more than four months since all its episodes joined the platform. And yet, Saturdays has received zero promotion, almost like its fate has been decided without giving it a chance to prove otherwise, just like Crater.
While the upcoming animated Wish still has a window for getting the marketing it deserves, Saturdays, despite its 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, might end up not having a future or a home.
LEGO debuts the official trailer of the promise the MCU clearly didn’t want to make in Avengers: Endgame
Remember that weirdly put-together scene towards the end in Endgame, where Captain Marvel — after kapow-ing Thanos’ massive aerial ship to smithereens singlehandedly — needs to have the power of every female superhero available (yes, even Mantis and Wasp) to cross a few yards? Not to mention the fact that somehow, in that chaotic battle for survival, the heroes managed to get segregated by gender. Yep, just Marvel and its poor attempts at fan service.
But while the studio triggered the dreams of an all-female superhero flick down the line and then never touched it — The Marvels is as far as it gets — LEGO has finally dropped the official trailer of LEGO Disney Princess: The Castle Quest, an original special crossover set to star Ariel, Moana, Snow White, Tiana, and Rapunzel, who band together to stop Gaston from taking over the world after stealing King Triton’s trident.
Is Disney the biggest box-office loser in 2023? Um, actually, not exactly
Wait… what? Yes, yes, we get the sentiment. Trust me, we are still scraping our jaws from the floor. Up until now, Disney has only lost big bucks thanks to Quantumania, The Little Mermaid, Elemental, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and now Haunted Mansion. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was its only saving grace, and that sailed because everyone was too busy mourning James Gunn’s Marvel farewell to see the glaring, unforgivable errors in the sequel (six, to be precise).
But Disney has to probably disappoint with 100 more box-office bombs before its decades of good rep die down as even with all the 2023 flops, it has nabbed $4 billion in total ticket sales for the year — effortlessly retaining its title as the Hulk of the entertainment industry.