Top 10 Biggest Movie Studio Regrets

The Top Ten

  1. Passing on the MCU (Paramount)

    Paramount Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. Founded in 1912, the company is based in Hollywood, California, and is a subsidiary of Paramount Skydance. It is one of the oldest surviving film studios and has produced or distributed many iconic films, including entries in... read more

  2. Giving George Lucas the full merchandising rights to Star Wars (20th Century Fox)

    20th Century Studios is an American film studio and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is based in Los Angeles and was known as 20th Century Fox before being renamed in 2020, following Disney's acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox's assets on March... read more

  3. Selling KPop: Demon Hunters to Netflix outright (Sony)

    Sony Group Corporation, commonly known as Sony and stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo, Japan.

    As a major technology company, it operates across consumer and professional electronics, imaging and sensing technology, video games, music... read more

  4. Rejecting the distribution rights for Mickey Mouse in 1928 (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

  5. Selling most of their pre-1950 library (Warner Bros.)

    Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., commonly referred to as Warner Bros., is an American entertainment company. It is widely recognized for its work in film, television, and animation. The company is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery and has been a significant force in global media for over a century... read more

    Long before Zaslav, WB was always a company that wasn't exactly run by geniuses. Case in point, in the 1950s, WB sold all but their most recent output to television syndicators.

    This would turn out to be a terrible idea, as films like Casablanca, Warner's classic gangster movies, and the older Looney Tunes shorts would make millions, if not billions, in reruns, with WB not receiving a penny.

    This was a key factor in WB buying Ted Turner Enterprises in 1996, which in turn had bought most of the companies that held these older films.

  6. Being reluctant to changing trends in animation (Disney)

    The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. It was founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy O. Disney. Disney is known for its film studios, theme... read more

    This has long been a problem with Disney, even back to the Walt days (Walt himself detested the concept of television animation because he said no one would want to watch a cartoon made on a television budget. And then came The Flintstones), but it really accelerated during the post-Wells Eisner era.

    Eisner's grief over Wells caused him to split with Katzenberg (the latter founding DreamWorks), treat anime as a passing fad (lest we forget they owned the American rights to Ghibli and Sailor Moon for a period in the 90s), and almost cut ties with Pixar.

    You heard me right, they almost cut ties with Pixar. Eisner thought Finding Nemo would do lukewarm in sales. Guess what is still the top-selling DVD of all time?

  7. Not taking Marvel more seriously (Universal)

    While not as big of an issue as what happened with Paramount (Universal wasn't planning on investing in the MCU anyway), this involves the theme park side of things.

    They had a good start in Florida but then decided to do a poor job in California with a poorly received Spider-Man stage show called "Spider-Man Rocks" and nothing more.

    This would cause Disney to be able to snatch up the West Coast theme park rights to Marvel easily. With DC having an ironclad contract with Six Flags, this would leave Universal without superheroes in California.

  8. Letting Michael Cimino run Heaven's Gate over budget (United Artists)

  9. Making too many films in one year (Orion Pictures)

    Orion is possibly the only company to go bankrupt after having two Academy Award winners back to back.

    Why? Because besides Dances with Wolves and The Silence of the Lambs, the rest of the films were bombs whose costs couldn't be recouped even by these two critical and commercial successes.

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