Disney Live-Action Remakes | A Multicultural Analysis

By Natasha Pongonis

Disney has taken it upon themselves to create live-action remakes of our beloved childhood movies. These remakes have proven to generate a lot of social media buzz and have been both loved and criticized by many. These Disney multicultural insights focus on the recent movies Dumbo, Aladdin, and The Lion King which are sure to take us down memory lane!

In a recent multicultural study by OYE! Business Intelligence, the team analyzed Hispanic and African American entertainment insights based on social media conversations on Twitter about Disney during the dates of August 10th – September 10th, 2019. The analysis covers ethnicity, language, location, category analysis, and top Hispanic and African American influencers.

This analysis was extrapolated from a sample of 98,484 Twitter conversations online discussing the 2019 Disney Live-Action Remakes of which 13,568 or approximately 13.7%, were from verified Hispanics and 8,131 or approximately 8.2% were from verified African Americans.

Below is data taken directly from our report for this study. (The link can be found at the end of the article)

Analyzing the volume by ethnicity

• The Disney Live-Action Remakes in this report were all movies released in 2019. Dumbo was released on March 29th, Aladdin was released on May 24th, and The Lion King was released on July 19th in the United States.
• The Lion King received the most buzz with 79,619 total conversations followed by Aladdin with 14,506, and Dumbo having the fewest conversations with only 4,359 conversations. This is also the order of newest to oldest releases. Being that The Lion King came out during the data collection period, it makes sense that it generated the most buzz.

Out of 98,484 Twitter conversations in the United States, U.S. Hispanics made up 13.7% (13,568) of overall conversations, almost double the percentage of conversations generated by African Americans at just 8.2% (8,131).

Analysis by Gender (Hispanic)

• Among U.S. Hispanic tweets about the 2019 Disney Live-Action Remakes, the divide between male and female-generated tweets was close to even. Tweets about The Lion King were the furthest from an even split with 61.7% of tweets being from Hispanic males and 38.3% being from Hispanic females. 
• The new Dumbo had the largest percentage of female tweets with 47.6% of tweets being from Hispanic female Twitter users.

Analysis by Gender (African American)

• African American conversations about the 2019 Disney Live-Action Remakes on Twitter were far more male-dominated with all movies garnering only 20-30% female conversations.
• The Lion King had the highest percentage (28.0%) of female African American tweets and Dumbo had the smallest percentage (21.5%) of female African American tweets.

The higher percentage of female African American tweets for The Lion King was found in the report to be in part due to the overwhelming support and praise for Disney casting Beyonce as Nala in the Live-Action remake. This support is seen in the Female African American subset of tweets, found in the full version of the report.

Analysis by Location (Hispanic)

• The highest volume of Hispanic Twitter users conversing about the 2019 Disney Live-Action Remakes was in Los Angeles, CA (16.9%) followed by New York City, NY (8.6%).
• Conversations in Los Angeles about the three 2019 Live-Action remakes were extremely varied among U.S. Hispanic Twitter users.

A July appreciation post found in the report, from Twitter user Ana Christina, says

“July is gonna have the Lion King, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, new Stranger Things, and SPIDER-MAN #whatamonth #yaassss”.

Analysis by Location (African American)

• The highest volume of African American Twitter users conversing about the 2019 Disney Live-Action Remakes was in Atlanta, GA (29.1%) followed by Washington, D.C. (17.1%). 
• Conversations in Atlanta were also varied but many were either in regards to Beyoncé or diverse casting choices, according to the report. Tweets in Washington, D.C. were varied as well but seemed to have more to do with comparing originals to the new remakes.

Example tweets can be found in the full version of the report.

If you’re interested in reading the full report, which provides further insight on analysis of other topic comparisons between Hispanic and African American consumers contact me.