By Nathalie Voit

Disney is re-releasing several old-time movie favorites as the once thriving animation studio struggles to recoup from some less-than-stellar box office numbers.

Blame it on the woke crowd. According to The Daily Wire, the re-launch of several Disney classics is a desperate attempt to make up for declining revenue due to public backlash over Disney’s over-the-top social activism.

While top-grossing films like “Avatar” (which debuted in 2009) and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (which debuted in 2016) brought over $77 million and $155 million, respectively, during their domestic opening weekend, the studio’s recent movie releases have been major flops.

Take Disney and Pixar’s “Lightyear,” for instance. The summer title grossed around $51 million domestic opening (not bad after a pandemic). However, the Toy Story spinoff has grossed just $118.2 million to date, rendering it a failure for a production house that regularly earns at least $200 million at the U.S. box office.

According to The Daily Wire, the high-profile losses can be traced to Disney’s hardcore foray into “wokeness.”

Disney’s “Lightyear,” for example, features a same-sex kiss in a bid to cater to the woke crowd. Meanwhile, traditional “macho” films like Paramount Picture’s “Top Gun: Maverick” broke records at the North American box office this year without inserting your now usual dose of controversial corporate activism.

The latter film was essentially a homage to the classical American values of courage, glory, and sacrifice–values that Disney is attempting to do away with in favor of more ‘progressive’ LGBTQ content.

The descent into wokeness is starting to backfire. According to the company’s most recent earnings report, Disney added only 100,000 new domestic subscribers to its streaming service Disney+ in the third fiscal quarter ending July 2, 2022.

Total U.S.-based subscriber growth in Q3 is significantly down from the 1.5 million new domestic subscribers reported in the second quarter.

The same day Disney’s financial results were released, The Walt Disney Company announced a series of across-the-board price increases on its subscription plans–presumably to make up for its lagging box office performance.