The Search for Innovation—On and Offscreen

Discovering the latest film releases is like experiencing a long string of déjà vu. How to Train Your Dragon and Jurassic Park are in theaters again. Even Disney, the studio famous for bringing us classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Lilo and Stitch, is now giving us uninspired films like… Snow White and Lilo and Stitch? Yes, you read that right. Original films are few and far between these days, but remakes and sequels get pumped into movie theaters. Where’s the innovation?

Nobody I’ve talked to has liked any of the recent Disney remakes. In fact, the general sentiment I see is that they’re terrible films that don’t even come close to the originals. Despite this, though, most of these remakes are doing exceptionally well. Lilo and Stitch made over $1 billion at the box office. Disney’s live-action remakes of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin have also grossed over a billion dollars each.  There have been some significant failures, such as Snow White, which only grossed around $205 million (the movie cost $269 million to make). Still, overall, these films do incredibly well in theaters, despite all the criticism.

On the other hand, Pixar, which is at least making some original films, is falling behind. Their 2023 film Elemental struggled at the box office, becoming the lowest-grossing Pixar film of all time before slowly gaining enough popularity to become profitable. Pixar’s newest film, Elio, is a similar story, and currently holds the record for the worst-performing Pixar film.

Since remakes and sequels are doing so well and original movies are flopping in theaters, this must mean that people don’t care about original films, right? Wrong. There are successful, original movies out there. A lot of them have just moved. After Elemental moved to Disney+, it achieved 60 million streams in a week, surpassing far more profitable movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and eventually reached $500 million.

Netflix has another animated success story under its belt. K-Pop Demon Hunters, released June 20^th of this year, has gained over 33 million views in its first two weeks and has secured a spot in Netflix’s global top ten movies (it sits at number 2 as of August 5th). In fact, the Netflix Original film has just made history as the first Netflix movie to reach a new streaming peak five weeks after its release. Outside of Netflix records, K-Pop Demon Hunters has also broken music records previously set by real K-Pop groups. However, now two sequels and a live-action remake are reportedly in the mix, a warning that even true innovation isn’t safe from the “rinse and repeat” treatment.

Here's the part you’ve all been waiting for (at least some of you, hopefully). How does this relate to innovation in the pet industry? As many of us are aware, SUPERZOO 2025 is approaching, and innovation is a prominent buzzword at trade shows like this. However, it appears that innovation has been relegated to the back burner in recent years. My colleague, Jordan Tyler, attended the Global Pet Expo earlier this year and iterated in a follow-up article that products look different, but “inside the bag, not much has been truly innovated.” Émilie Mesnier, VP of European Operations at BSM Partners, in a recent Barking Mad podcast episode about Zoomark 2025, expressed that she doesn’t see much innovation in the industry either, and that “if it's been existing for 20 to 30 years, I can't call it innovation.” Consumer Insights expert, Michael Johnson, expressed a similar sentiment, but emphasized that in addition to being innovative, pet brands also need to be able to market and sell their products, putting them between a rock and a hard place. Both Michael and Émilie remarked that are seeing pockets of innovation—usually in small, emerging brands—demonstrating that, though difficult, there is true innovation in our industry.

As we prepare for SUPERZOO 2025, I want to remind the pet industry of what innovation truly looks like. Just because something is generating money now doesn’t mean it will always do so. Pet parents want real innovation, not more of the same, and BSM Partners has the tools that can get you from remake to remarkable. Don’t forget to stop by booth #10737 for conversation, connections, and a peek into our latest innovations!

Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest updates on all things happening here at BSM Partners.

About the Author

Cady Wolf is an Analyst at BSM Partners. She graduated magna cum laude with a degree in English from Brigham Young University-Idaho, and she currently lives in Rexburg, Idaho with her husband, their two cats, and pet tortoise. She loves animals and learning about how to help pet brands and pet parents alike.