Has Disney Permanently Alienated Its Family Audience?
By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher, and Dr. Tom Snyder, Editor
Disney has released four major movies in the last two months, but three of those movies have been labeled flops here and/or overseas, and the most successful one of the four is not doing so well if one accounts for inflation.
The mainstream media, including the major trade papers in Hollywood, have offered all sorts of reasons for the broad audience of moviegoers turning a cold shoulder toward Disney’s new theatrical movies. Regrettably, they have neglected the major reason – Disney’s rejection of traditional family values.
More than 64% of Americans, including families with children, identify as Christian, according to Pew Research Center. These are the families that will show up en masse when a movie promotes values such as redemption, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, compassion, and more. These were values that Disney previously included in their movies.
In its first 100 years, Disney built its brand as being the most family-friendly movie studio and entertainment company in the world.
However, in the last five years, Disney seems to have forgotten their own brand. Due to pressure from lobbying groups in Hollywood, much of the newer movies have embraced anti-family agendas. Unfortunately, this includes a significant amount of anti-biblical themes. While Disney is trying to promote the narrative that this is the norm, a Gallup poll revealed that 55% of Americans think it is morally wrong to change your gender.
Disney’s blatant flaunting of anti-biblical values is causing them to lose customers at the box office. As Movieguide® previously reported, the company lost $900 million on its last eight releases.
Among the recent Disney movies containing some anti-family content have been ONWARD, LIGHTYEAR, STRANGE WORLD, THE LITTLE MERMAID, and ELEMENTAL.
It’s not just the movies. In addition, in the last three years, Disney has told its park greeters to say, “Welcome, Dreamers” instead of the traditional greeting, “Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls.” One park even had a transgender fairy godmother’s assistant wearing a dress and sporting a mustache welcoming family customers in one of its stores. Furthermore, a top Disney executive was quoted in a video as saying that she tries to insert some LGBT content in all of Disney’s entertainment programming.
This move is also costing the parks money as they cater to nostalgic adults and not families.
Clearly, Disney’s new attitude has alienated many parents and grandparents in its family audience. As a result, many moviegoers think Disney has greatly tarnished its brand.
It’s hard to say whether Disney will be able to stop the bleeding and fully regain its family audience.
Disney must return to making real family movies. However, that may not be enough to save the brand, as so many families are burned from the company’s recent movies.
How can you claim to be a pro-family business if you support politics and policies that mock the Bible, vilifies the nuclear family, attacks large families, and promotes the murder of little defenseless babies?
You can’t.
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