Shareholders Ask Disney Pixar To Make Films More Commercially Friendly
Traders in Wall Street have voiced their concerns over the commercial strength of Disney Pixar recently.Many quality films have come out of this company over the last couple of decades but there are lots of people that think they have lost their commercial edge these days.
The news follows the release of their last two films, WALL-E and Ratatouille, which have been the studio’s two worst performing productions. The problem is not that they are unable to make profits, just that there are other companies biting at their heals, including the growing monster that is Dreamworks. Their new film ‘UP’ has recently been released and the criticisms of previous films have continued with this one.The general consensus is that there is a clear lack of characters that transfer as well into merchandise sales as some of their previous productions, e.g. Mickey Mouse or the productions of their competitors. Dreamworks have had a great run recently with films such as Shrek, Wallace and Grommit and their newest release Monsters VS Aliens. These movies feature talking creatures or animals that are endearing to children and also have clear marketable heroes and villains. Toys, books, DVD’s, clothes even more obscure products such as dolls houses, all go towards making up the films overall profits.The ability to push these products is what pixar have been failing to do as of late and this is arguable down to their choices of story and characters.
The counter argument to this has been that Pixar are more interested in creating worthwhile and high quality films than selling pointless toys from their productions. They would rather be able to promote the buying of educational toys rather than cheap tacky stuff. There is however the ever present pressure being put on the company by shareholders and associated businesses to raise profits year on year.Pali Research’s Richard Greenfield has downgraded the shares of Disney to sell this month just gone, stating that a predicted high risk of commercial failure is the reason.