Is Disney really good at making movies or just popular?

Solid movies (on average), exellent formula, a few very good movies, almost no trash movies.

That combo associated with the historical popularity of the brand help to enhance the audience suspension of disbelief abilities and somewhat decrease the level of expectations...

So yes, Disney movies are an easiest sell (for the public and for the critics) than most other movies.

@mike_fowler: That's the point. Relying on brand name only can only get you so far.

@krleavenger: but wasn’t your point earlier that they ONLY make money based on brand name? Don’t you think if that were the case, a movie like, say, Rogue One, would’ve flopped?

Both, but it’s a business and they made wise business decisions like making sure their tax credits were done correctly >_> stares at DC Universe....

Family Entertainment.

Now describe the identity of the other major studios in two words. Yeah...you can’t. The other studios have no sense of self or real brand power which is why Disney is so far ahead of them. It’s not just because they own Marvel and Star Wars. If they owned Godzilla and DC they would turn those into gold instead.

Disney is good at making people want to see movies

They're absolutely iconic because of quality. Wether or not Disney's still making this level of films is beyond me to answer cause I don't follow anymore, but they have done some of the greatest work in cinema history, and they pretty much established the baseline of a good cartoon.

Why not both?

Disney use to have a tallent in the way they conceived and animated 2D movies. Walt Disney just gather the right people and was ahead of the other companies (at the begining).

Also Walt Disney loved tales and music. You can see that every original Disney movie is a musical. You can also see that Disney movies are always based on something they didn't write (a tale, a novel, a videogame, ...).

Using already popular tales was a token of quality regarding the story. And the 2D animation talent was another proof of Disney's quality.

With that Disney was and is still, synomimous with popular and quality. So this brough lots of Fame to Disney, meaning also lots of money.

With its good earned money Disney expended with amusement parcs. And by bying other companies with talent such as Pixar and now Marvel and Fox.

But sadly Disney has never been able to write original stories. The rare times Disney tried, the movies failed.

And since 3D has become easy to use, it's now cheaper and faster to make money. So Disney left its 2D studio, becoming just another company making movies amongs all the companies.

Disney has no more special talents that others don't have. The only difference is that Disney's very rich. So they can make lots of big budget movies, and also use lots of that money for marketing their movies. Meaning they can pay popular actors, and praised writters and directors.

But Disney is becoming like a big factory and chain producting their movies. Wich means a little bit ruching their movies and loosing quality. But they don't care, they've got the money to have good marketing that will make everyone want to see the movies even if they are not the best ones out there. (But they are still not the worst ones, remember, Disney can have all the Directors they want).

It's both but I do hope that people understand the general audience doesn't actually know Disney owns Marvel or Star Wars.