There is no way Disney is gonna shut Pixar down cuz they would definitely make a fourth even fifth Cars movie at any cost. It’s their biggest animation franchise. Bigger than Frozen or Toy Story.
I doubt making Frozen sequels is the only reason she stepped down. WDAS is definitely in big creative trouble. All their upcoming projects are nothing but sequels.
I think the biggest problem with this franchise is, general audience really don't give a shit on it. The first three movies worked well cuz they caught the zeitgeist in the era of post-911 with astonishing CGI jobs. Today, you can easily tell they're making pure commercial products. It could be fun at best. But mostly, it's boring and unnecessary.
I just realized Phoenix doesn't star Gladiator 2. I guess he also dumped this movie five days before principal photography?
Ridley can claim for compensation if it flop.
50/50. I think the concern is more about its quality than the absence of previous movie. As long as Eddie and Venom are funny, it's not hard to try somewhere around $100M. Aquaman 2 should be the bottom line ($65M).
Most negative comments mentioned the problem is the stylized courtroom drama instead of musical parts. It crashed all those potentials of the sequel being different and fresh.