Eight billion more, to be exact
According to the company's annual report, Disney will be heavily boosting their content for the coming year. And considering the endless amount of TV shows and movies already on the way, its a pretty substantial increase.
For 2022, Disney plans on spending an additional eight billion dollars on content for its streaming service, theatrical releases, sporting rights and its amusement parks.
This figure will take the total spending of the upcoming year to a staggering $33 billion, with most of the money focussed on TV shows and movies.
For the year 2021, Disney spent $25 billion on its releases, which included five MCU series on Disney+ and three theatrical releases. This year, we also had Ridley Scott's 'The Last Duel' and 'Free Guy' starring Ryan Reynolds, both of which were released under 20th Century Studios (and starred Jodie Comer).
The report also shed a light on just how many TV shows and films Disney plans to release in 2022. Disney’s Studios division will release 50 titles for theatres and on its direct-to-consumer platforms (Disney+, Hulu), while its General Entertainment division plans to produce or commission 60 unscripted TV series, 30 comedy series, 25 drama series, 15 docuseries/limited series, 10 animated series and five TV movies.
Hearing this news may set alarm bells ringing for competing studios and streaming services. With Disney already dominating in the entertainment industry, and with Disney+ already gaining impressive numbers throughout 2021, other studios such as Netflix and Amazon Prime may have to up the ante if they have a chance at competing against them.
For example, Netflix plans on spending $14 billion on its content for 2022. Granted, Netflix is just a streaming service with some subsidiaries under its belt compared to Disney's juggernaut of holding companies, but $33 billion is a much more substantial number, regardless.
In the pipeline for Disney+ in Europe next year, there are a number of 'Star Wars', Marvel and Star original content on the way including 'Pam & Tommy', an 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' series, 'She-Hulk', and 'Hocus Pocus 2'.