Every parent will always have a hard time getting the hit Frozen song "Let It Go" out of their heads... and yet Encanto's "We Don't Talk About Bruno" has become an even bigger success. While Disney excels at creating music that is incredibly fun and memorable, it's perhaps surprising that any song could make more money than "Let It Go" since that was such a pop culture staple. Both songs prove that there Disney's knack for hit songs like "Part Of Your World" and "Hakuna Matata" lives on today with new audiences discovering movies like Encanto and loving the fresh storytelling.
The character Bruno, who is played by John Leguizamo, is fascinating, and it makes sense that he would be the subject of an entire song. What is the reason for "We Don't Talk About Bruno" being a huge moneymaker for Disney, even more than "Let It Go" from Frozen?
Why Was "We Don't Talk About Bruno" More Successful Than "Let It Go?"
Even though Encanto didn't do well at the box office during the first weekend that it was in theaters, it did great on the streaming service Disney+, and it has a massive fanbase who love singing along.
While Encanto is all about Mirabel Madigral, voiced by Stephanie Beatriz, who is part of an amazing family but is upset that she isn't magical like they are, Bruno is absolutely a stand-out character.
The amazing success of "We Don't Talk About Bruno" saw it rise on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. According to Forbes, while "Let It Go" made it to number five on that chart in April of 2014, "We Don't Talk About Bruno" was number one in January 2022.
Another Disney movie song reached number one as well: “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, which was released in 1992. It had been several decades since Disney experienced that kind of success on the Billboard chart.
People streamed the song an incredible 34.9 million times between January 21 and 27th 2022 alone, according to Forbes.
As for why "We Don't Talk About Bruno" beat "Let It Go," The Atlantic reported that it could have been because TikTok has become so popular. Many fans of the movie created videos with the song, which definitely made it part of the cultural conversation.
In January 2022, Lin-Minuel Miranda was interviewed by The Associated Press and he spoke about how beloved "We Don't Talk About Bruno" is. He talked about how before he crafts a finished song, he comes up with a demo.
Miranda said, “That’s always the process with me. There’s lots of terrible demos. Often those are sung at 3 or 4 a.m., so they don’t sound great. I think TikTok has had a field day with the demos I’ve released because I’m warbling and my voice is cracking. Movies take a long time. There was a lot of just singing these songs around your house for years, and trying to make them better and better.”
Paul Amante, who teaches high school in Saskatchewan and was interviewed by CBC.ca, shared that one of his students told him about how Encanto fans love sharing the movie's music on TikTok. Amante said, "A student of mine said, 'Mr. Amante, you need to sing We Don't Talk About Bruno on TikTok. Then I watched the movie, and I was addicted."
This is really interesting to think about, as when Encanto was released in 2021, the world looked very different from 2010, when Frozen came out. TikTok really took off in the past few years with more people spending time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and that is why "We Don't Talk About Bruno" has done so well.
How Much Money Did Lin-Manuel Miranda Make From "We Don't Talk About Bruno?"
According to Box Office Mojo, the worldwide gross for Encanto was $256,786,742. And Lin-Manuel Miranda made a lot of money from his song "We Don't Talk About Bruno" as well.
According to Billboard, Miranda's songs from Encanto made a high amount of royalty money: $4.7 million, to be exact. And while it's not known exactly what his own take-home pay was, it would have been millions of dollars, Billboard reported.
While "Let It Go" is definitely an unforgettable song, it's easy to see why "We Don't Talk About Bruno" caught on even more. "Let It Go" has lyrics that are very specific to the story of Frozen and the experiences that sisters Anna and Elsa, played by Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, are having in their kingdom where it's always winter.
"We Don't Talk About Bruno," on the other hand, has lyrics that are instantly adorable and interesting. Even the title alone draws people in as they wonder who this character is and why people wouldn't want to have conversations about him.
In an interview with Variety, Lin-Manuel Miranda shared that Frank, his father-in-law, heard him working on the song and told him that he could just tell that it would be a success. And as soon as Encanto was released, he learned that many people in his life couldn't stop listening.
Miranda told Variety, "Then my wife and I went on vacation for two weeks and I started getting messages: First from friends, “My kids can’t stop singing it!,” because it really exploded when it hit Disney+. Then I got a Twitter DM from [actor-filmmaker] Taika Waititi, who I’m friendly with but I don’t know that well, who was like, 'I’m gonna kill you — it’s great, but my kids won’t stop singing it!' And then when we got back it was like it had taken over the world."
Miranda also talked to Variety about how he came up with the concept for "We Don't Talk About Bruno." He said that he wanted the characters to "tell a kind of ghost story about him" and then surprise audiences with Bruno, who is a sweet character. The concept was that everything that Bruno says is going to happen would obviously happen.
Miranda said, So he predicts rain on her wedding day — well, she’s the most stressed-out person in the world, of course it’s gonna rain on her wedding day! — and other incredibly predictable predictions, right?"
He explained that he didn't sleep when he wrote "We Don't Talk About Bruno" because he was working the story out. And it definitely paid off as the song has become an absolutely huge hit for Disney.
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