For years, Disney+ was sold as the ultimate win for Marvel and Star Wars fans. Endless new shows, catalogs, and a direct line from Disney to its most devoted audiences. Now, Wall Street is making the opposite argument, and it is one a lot of longtime fans have probably already been feeling for a while: these franchises might actually be worth more if Disney let them go. I personally have wondered this for sometime.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall believes Disney could boost its stock price by as much as 40 percent by stepping back from the streaming wars entirely and returning to what he calls its “old biz model of producing vs. distributing.” In other words, make the movies and shows, then let other platforms bid for the right to stream them, rather than locking everything inside Disney+.
The numbers behind the argument are hard to brush off. Cahall points to Sony’s pay-one deal with Netflix, worth roughly $1 billion a year, and estimates Disney’s film output alone could command close to $4 billion annually for a first streaming window, about four times what Sony gets. Factor in later licensing windows and Disney’s massive back catalog of Disney animation, Pixar, 20th Century Fox, Marvel, and Star Wars, and Wells Fargo puts the total potential value at around $15 billion a year.
Here’s the part that stings for anyone who has felt like Marvel and Star Wars just have not been the same lately: the viewing numbers back it up. Roughly 95 percent of all Disney+ viewing in the first quarter of 2026 reportedly came from catalog titles, meaning stuff that already existed before the streamer launched. Only about 5 percent came from recent originals, making Disney+ the most catalog-dependent major streaming service being tracked. People are subscribing to rewatch old Marvel movies and the original trilogy, not to watch what is being made for the platform right now.
And it shows in the ratings. Daredevil: Born Again reportedly went 0-for-17 on the Nielsen streaming charts across its first two seasons, with the Season 2 finale failing to chart even in a week with a low viewership cutoff. Wonder Man dropped off the charts after a single week. The Punisher: One Last Kill never showed up at all. Meanwhile, Marvel is still moving forward with more shows, including a Season 3 of Daredevil: Born Again built around a Defenders reunion.
Star Wars tells an even rougher version of the same story. Television viewership for the franchise has reportedly fallen more than 70 percent, and the theatrical audience has dropped around 85 percent between The Force Awakens, which made just over $2 billion worldwide in 2015, and The Mandalorian & Grogu, which roughly $316 million and became the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars movie domestically. Ouch. The franchise that used to be a can’t-miss theatrical event became a steady stream of TV content, and somewhere along the way, a lot of the magic went with it. As a lifelong Star Wars fan, it’s hard to watch.
Both franchises now appear to be heading into some kind of reset. Marvel has Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars set to clear the board before rebuilding around the X-Men. Lucasfilm’s release calendar is thin beyond Star Wars: Starfighter, with new leadership and years of reboot rumors still swirling. We shall see.
Cahall’s proposal is essentially this: let Marvel and Star Wars rest, rebuild them for theatrical releases the way they used to be treated, and in the meantime, license the existing library out to Netflix, Amazon, or a combined Paramount-Warner and let those companies pay Disney to fight over the rights, instead of Disney footing the entire bill to keep Disney+ stocked with content nobody is watching.
It’s a strategy built around a pretty uncomfortable idea for die-hard fans: that Disney+ was supposed to make Marvel and Star Wars more valuable by keeping them in house, and instead, years of declining audiences and missed ratings charts later, the opposite might be true.
So we want to know what you think. Have Marvel and Star Wars lost their spark for you over the last few years? Do you think spinning these franchises off Disney+ and rebuilding them for the big screen would actually bring back the excitement, or is the damage already done? Let us know in the comments.
You May Also Enjoy: Avengers: Doomsday Is Taking the MCU Back to “Phase Zero” Here’s Why Marvel Is Hitting the Reset Button
Mouse Fan Travel® an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, has been planning and creating magical Disney vacations since 2005. Their mission is to provide premium service and expert advice to help you get the most for your vacation time and dollar. Their Disney Travel Agents operate with the highest degree of integrity and will handle your family vacation, reunion, honeymoon, corporate incentive trip or getaway, as if it were their own. They pride themselves on expertly representing and advocating for you – their client.
The next time you and your family are planning a Disney vacation, visit Mouse Fan Travel for your no obligation quote or to answer any Disney vacation questions you may have. Are you looking for a beach vacation, tour or cruise to destinations across the globe? Visit MEI-Travel for exceptional expertise with ZERO agency fees.