Amid AI Backlash, Disney’s Two Biggest Franchises Just Crushed Teaser Records
Disney is roaring back with a one-two teaser punch: The Devil Wears Prada 2 amassed 185 million views in 24 hours, while Pixar’s Toy Story 5 pulled 142 million across platforms—blistering numbers that signal the studio’s momentum is surging.
If you felt a sudden gust of Disney hype this week, you were not imagining it. Two teasers lit up the internet and, depending on which report you read, they just muscled past the Avengers trailer records. And yes, one of them is The Devil Wears Prada 2. Wild pairing, I know.
The teaser numbers everyone is talking about
- The Devil Wears Prada 2: 185 million views in 24 hours (across platforms), per Collider
- Toy Story 5: 142 million views in the same 24-hour window, also across platforms, per Collider
- Previous champs were from Marvel: Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The new tallies are being touted as dethroning those, which is notable considering those Avengers numbers used to be the gold standard
Whether you buy the word 'record' or just call it a monster showing, the point is the same: people clicked. A lot. And that matters for Disney beyond bragging rights.
Why it matters beyond the hype
Those eye-popping view counts arrive while Disney is digging in on copyright and character control in a very public way. The company (alongside Universal) is in an active legal fight with the AI outfit Midjourney, and momentum like this helps Disney argue that its characters and styles are still extremely valuable and very much under lock and key.
The lawsuit, in plain English
According to CNBC, Disney and Universal filed a 110-page complaint accusing Midjourney of training its generative AI on their copyrighted characters and signature visual styles. The filing flat-out labels what is happening as:
'Textbook Copyright Infringement'
The studios say prompts can spit out images and video that look uncomfortably close to their properties. They also argue, per The Washington Post, that Midjourney scraped training data from the open web without permission, which they contend violates U.S. copyright law. Both Disney and Universal have sent cease-and-desist letters to Midjourney that they say remain in effect through 2024 and 2025, but the companies claim those have gone nowhere so far.
And for what it is worth, heavy hitters in filmmaking have been vocal about AI in movies. Guillermo del Toro has been one of the loudest skeptics, which only turns up the temperature on this fight.
About those sequels: smart play or too much nostalgia?
Disney leaning on legacy titles is not new, but this current run is... a lot. Legacy sequels and remakes come with built-in awareness and box-office history, which is why studios love them. The flip side: too many retreads can make fans feel like the magic is fading. We have already seen how that can go sideways with recent live-action updates like Snow White (the one with Rachel Zegler) and even the ongoing parade of re-imaginings like The Lion King.
The read from some corners is that this much recycling signals a creative rut driven more by corporate calculus than inspiration. If the trend keeps accelerating, Disney risks long-term brand fatigue, even if the trailers are crushing in the short term.
Quick refresher on the last outings
The Devil Wears Prada (2006) still has a sturdy rep: 75% from critics and 76% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and $326 million worldwide. Toy Story 4 (2019) was a critical and commercial juggernaut: 96% critics, 94% audience, $1.07 billion worldwide.
If you want to revisit before the new installments land, The Devil Wears Prada and Toy Story 4 are streaming on Hulu/Disney+ in the U.S.
So, are you in for more Miranda Priestly and another round with Woody and Buzz? Or is this one sequel wave too many? Drop your take in the comments.