The Hollywood Reporter wrote a piece on Disney’s Tinker Bell franchise which just released its fifth film, The Pirate Fairy. The reports raises the question of whether the success of the direct-to-DVD Tink films lead the way for the monster success of Frozen:
“I think the success of Tinker Bell might have opened Disney’s eyes to an underserved market, which are pre-tween girls,” says Wade Holden, an analyst with SNL Kagan. “Then came Tangled, Brave and Frozen. There was a craving for this sort of content.”
The six Tinker Bell films have grossed over $335 million worldwide with $110 million of that coming from overseas theatrical releases. Those releases began as a promotional vehicle for the films, but have turned in to legitimate first-run features. This success encourage DisneyToon Studios to release Planes theatrically worldwide which resulted in $219 million in worldwide box office.
The next Fairies film will be Legend of the NeverBeast which will be released next year. The future of the franchise is uncertain after that chapter as a seventh film was cancelled due to story problems.