Part 5/8:
Audience Preferences: Targeted Content Over Generic Franchises
At the heart of the issue lies the disconnect between Disney's offerings and their core audiences. Barbie's success, for example, underscores the importance of understanding and catering to audience expectations. The Barbie movie is distinctly feminine, hyper-feminine, and comes with a pro-women message that resonated strongly with its target demographic—adult women who grew up playing with Barbies.
While some critics have pointed to potential "woke" elements in the film, it is more accurately characterized as a celebration of femininity and empowerment rather than an anti-male message. The film's marketing and messaging clearly targeted that demographic, and it paid off spectacularly.