Did Streaming Kill Disney?

Aniket Tank, editor-in-chief

Disney, for years, has been at the top of the film industry. From animation to live-action, Disney has been making movies that have shaped pop culture. Throughout the 2010s, Disney could rely on its assets, such as Marvel and Star Wars, to consistently make the company a lot of profit. But, in the last few years, they have been facing viewership and box office failures. “Thunderbolts” and “Captain America: Brave New World” released by Marvel in early 2025, did not perform as well as Marvel movies before 2020.  So, what's the problem? The answer is streaming. 

After “Avengers: Endgame” and “Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker” in 2019, Disney had to find a way to keep attention on two of their biggest franchises, after ending both of their respective story arch's. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, movie theaters closed, and theatrical releases were impossible. So, Disney turned to their new subscription streaming service: Disney+. 

“The Mandalorian”, a Star Wars show released on Disney+ before the start of the pandemic, proved to Disney executives that this form of distribution could work. When Covid started, they went all in on streaming. In 2021, Marvel released three live action series and three feature films, most of them were well received by fans and critics. 

By the end of 2021 theaters were back opened, but instead of going back to the usual two to three movies a year, Marvel decided to keep going with releasing shows on Disney+. Since 2021, they released 12 seasons of shows, and fans have noted a decline in quality. Bad CGI, cheesy writing and forgettable villains were all major complaints that fans had. Quantity over quality had a severe impact on Marvels reputation. Because of this, Marvel pivoted to releasing less content and focusing more on quality. 

In 2025, Marvel released “Thunderbolts” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Both had good ratings, and many thought that Marvel had brought its quality back to its pre-Covid levels. Despite this, ticket sales were still low. It seems that this period of constant Disney+ shows and mediocre movies took a real toll on Marvel’s reputation.  

DC Studio’s “Superman” was released only weeks before Fantastic Four and had much more successful ticket numbers than Fantastic Four.  

As for Star Wars, Lucasfilm released multiple shows centered around old characters, like the greatly anticipated “Kenobi,” “Ashoka” and “The Book of Boba Fett.” These shows faced some of the same quality issues that Marvel had, which made many fans frustrated with the brand.  

The Star Wars movies were never known for having a large, interconnected universe like what Marvel has, but it seems that's the direction their going in. “The Mandalorian and Grogu” will be Star War’s first film since the end of the Skywalker Saga and will be a conclusion to a plotline established across much of its Disney+ shows.  

It’s a risky move to have the plot of this very important for the future of Star Wars movie to rely on disliked shows. Casual viewers will have no idea what's going on if they never watched the Disney+ shows. Interest in the movie is low, so does this spell disaster for Disney? 

The streaming craze seems to have had a negative effect on the future of Disney’s biggest franchises, but that's not to say that good movies and shows were not made. “Spider-Man No Way Home” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” are examples of well received and profitable movies for the company. 

Star Wars had “Andor”, a prequel show to a prequel movie, that no one expected to be one of the franchise’s best pieces of content. “Andor” season 2, released in April 2025, broke records for LucasFilm and was nominated for 14 Emmy awards. The show broke conventional ideas of what Star Wars could be, and the success proves that the safe conventional route that Star Wars took with their other shows was flawed. 

“The best thing about ‘Andor’ to me is that it shows a side of the Star Wars galaxy that we’ve never really gotten to see in mainstream projects... ‘Andor’ breaks the mold by directly showing us the Empire at its most oppressive,” said junior Adam Salah. 

Andor’s successes can be partially attributed to the fact that the show was planned and greenlit before the big push to streaming. It was made not as an opportunity to make money, but to tell a story that its creator had envisioned. “Andor” also used more real-life filming sets, had more of a grounded plot, did not fill itself with cameos and fan service and did not stray from political themes. 

“I would love to see Star Wars enter a renaissance period, where they focus on quality over quantity,” said Salah. 

Failures during the height of Disney+ have tarnished Marvel and Star War’s reputation and will have a lasting impact on the success of the franchises. It's unclear if the company’s recent push for better content will result in a major Marvel and Star Wars resurgence.