We Finally Know Exactly What's Slowly Killing Marvel, Star Wars, And Pixar

Though it may not come as a big surprise, a new report has revealed that Disney+ greatly harmed the Marvel Studios, "Star Wars," and Pixar brands in recent years. The rise of streaming was accelerated in 2020 largely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down theaters all over the world. The Mouse House had already launched Disney+, but the circumstances forced the company to double down. That may have helped it get a leg-up in the streaming game initially, but it came at the expense of some of the studio's biggest brands.

A new report by The Wrap has dived deep into the topic, revealing the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the "Star Wars" franchise, and the animation powerhouse Pixar have all suffered as a result of Disney+. It's a complicated issue but, in short, Disney+ created too much of what was once a scarce thing and made it accessible to everyone from the comfort of their home. Thus, the films from these brands have suffered, while even the Disney+ shows have seen steep declines in viewership.

Marvel Studios, in particular, has been having a rough year in 2025, with both "Captain America: Brave New World" ($415 million worldwide) and "Thunderbolts*" ($382 million worldwide) having disappointed financially. Even "The Fantastic Four: New Steps" dropped sharply in its second weekend, despite centering on an A-list team and earning great reviews. Even Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has gotten very blunt about the impact Disney+ has had on the once bullet-proof MCU:

"The expansion is what devalued [the Marvel brand]. 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."

Other movies such as "Eternals" and "The Marvels" also suffered greatly. "Captain Marvel" made well over $1 billion worldwide in 2019, while "The Marvels" was the lowest-grossing MCU movie ever, barely clearing $200 million. Feige pointed to characters like Ms. Marvel debuting in Disney+ shows, which led audiences to believe they might not know what was going on in the sequel, so they opted to skip it. The same can be said of "Thunderbolts*," which saw a lot of TV characters crossing over onto the big screen.

"Given the quality of the Marvel Disney+ output has been incredibly mediocre, it's dragged the entire brand down and diluted its creative. People don't care now," a producer who wished not to be named said to The Wrap. Indeed, the reception to shows like "Secret Invasion" hurt the MCU. And because it's a connected universe, this made it easier for people to drop off or wait to stream the MCU's recent movies at home once they arrived on Disney+.

That Disney+ problem extends to "Star Wars," albeit in a different way. "The Mandalorian" helped launch the streaming service, and it was a huge success out of the gate in 2019. That same year, "The Rise of Skywalker" made $1 billion at the box office despite all of its perceived flaws. In the years since then, however, we've not gotten a single "Star Wars" movie, but we have had shows like "The Book of Boba Fett," "Obi-Wan Kenobi," "Skeleton Crew," and "The Acolyte," all of which failed to score second seasons, falling short of expectations.

Meanwhile, the very well received "Andor" grew its viewership throughout its run, but it still failed to match "The Mandalorian." That makes it tough to justify the "Star Wars" series' eye-melting $650 million budget, even after the fact.

The "Star Wars" movie franchise was a scarce thing for many years, so any time a film set in a galaxy far, far away came out, it felt special. Now, however, Disney+ has made live-action projects based in that universe far more commonplace. It remains to be seen how this will impact the property's movies going forward, but "The Mandalorian and Grogu" will test that out next summer.

As for Pixar, Disney sent several of the animation studio's original films (specifically, "Luca," "Soul," and "Turning Red") directly to Disney+ in the early years of the pandemic era. That, in turn, gave people the impression that these once must-see theatrical events were now "free." And while "Inside Out 2" made an astonishing $1.6 billion last year, the studio's original movies are now struggling mightily. This year's "Elio" alone has made less than $140 million worldwide and will finish as the studio's lowest-grossing film ever, making it a commercial catastrophe for Disney. Similarly, Pixar's Disney+ output, such as the original series "Win or Lose," has failed to cut through in a meaningful way.

Disney CEO Bob Iger previously admitted the rush to prioritize Disney+ "diluted focus and attention" for the likes of Marvel and Pixar. As a result, the company has been attempting to course correct, having made virtually no big-budget, direct-to-streaming movies as of late. Because of this, Disney's live-action "Lilo & Stitch" remake wound up bringing in over $1 billion at the box office after becoming a theatrical release instead of going direct-to-streaming this year. As many reading this no doubt recall, the studio's "Moana 2" did pretty much the same thing after it evolved from a streaming series into a theatrical feature last year.

That leaves us with some big questions to answer. Is all this too little, too late? Can Disney course correct successfully and get the MCU back on track? Can it reduce its Lucasfilm output and make the "Star Wars" property feel special again? And is there any chance of a Pixar original film doing big business at the box office once more? Time will tell, but we can only hope that the answer to all these questions is "yes."