Disney's Winning Streak Ends As "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil" Flops

In recent years, Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) has released a parade of sequels, spinoffs, and reboots that build on its most popular franchises. This strategy has helped Disney dominate the U.S. and global box office. In two of the past three years, Disney films have captured more than a quarter of domestic box office receipts, beating the studio's closest rival by nearly 10 percentage points.

However, while this strategy has been extremely successful, it isn't foolproof. Investors were reminded of that this weekend, as highly anticipated Maleficent sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil came up well short of expectations at the domestic box office.

Disney entered this weekend on pace for its biggest annual box office victory yet. The House of Mouse had already grossed more than $2.8 billion in the U.S. and Canada this year from 10 films, not including movies from the recently acquired 20th Century Fox studio. That put its year-to-date domestic box office share at 32.1%, more than double that of its nearest rival.

Source Fool.com