Shares in the Walt Disney Corporation are now on course for their worst yearly performance since 1972 after James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water disappointed on its opening weekend.
The film hauled in $134 million domestically and had the second-largest global opening of 2022, but still fell short of projections based on advance ticket sales and underperformed in many of its largest markets including China.
Disney's share price fell by five percent on Monday, its lowest level since March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic began.
“The problem is nobody wants to go to the cinema because they’ve been told that COVID is extremely dangerous,” Tony Chambers, Disney’s global head of theatrical distribution, told The Wall Street Journal. “Although cinemas are open, the appetite for going to them isn’t really there.”
The company's stock also took a beating earlier this year when its leadership launched a full-scale attack against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after he passed the 'Parental Rights in Education' bill, which outlawed the use of sexually explicit materials and discussions for children before third grade.
The spat led DeSantis to remove Disney's special district status which had allowed it to make changes without approval from local authorities, a move that could have a severe impact on future development plans.
Disney recently announced the return of former CEO Bob Iger, who replaced his hand-picked successor Bob Chapek who was fired after just 11 months in the role after missing fourth-quarter revenue expectations by $1 billion. Iger reportedly told employees on his return that he did not like seeing the company embroiled in controversies and struck a conciliatory note with the state of Florida.
“Do I like the company being embroiled in controversy? Of course not,” he said at the time. “The state of Florida has been very important to us for a long time, and we have been very important to the state of Florida."
