Two years ago, after inexplicably allowing the release of Prince Caspian to be moved from the preceeding Christmas season (supposedly to avoid its potential conflict with Walden Media's The Water Horse), Disney rescheduled it for the summer of 2008, exactly one week after Iron Man and one week before Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull arrived in theaters. After this scheduling blunder set the movie up for relative failure compared to its predecessor, Disney abruptly pulled the plug on its Chronicles of Narnia franchise, citing the disappointing box office performance of the series' second installment. Instead, Disney hitched its wagon to a new potential series, one based--like no other successful single film, let alone actual franchise--on a video game, of all things. It looked like a stupid decision on its face, jumping from one of the most beloved collections of books of all time to a fading video game craze in an effort to make mass-market cinema.
This weekend, that stupidity is coming home to roost for Disney:
Prince Caspian's reception: 66% approval from Rotten Tomatoes and $19 million plus in its first day of release.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time's initial tally: 39% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and just over $10 million in its first day in theaters.
It looks like Prince of Persia will pull in about half of what the "disappointing" Narnia film earned, and this two years later with higher ticket prices across the board.
Somebody at Disney needs to get fired. I hope that Voyage of the Dawn Treader's success later this year simply rubs salt into Disney's wounds.
This weekend, that stupidity is coming home to roost for Disney:
Prince Caspian's reception: 66% approval from Rotten Tomatoes and $19 million plus in its first day of release.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time's initial tally: 39% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and just over $10 million in its first day in theaters.
It looks like Prince of Persia will pull in about half of what the "disappointing" Narnia film earned, and this two years later with higher ticket prices across the board.
Somebody at Disney needs to get fired. I hope that Voyage of the Dawn Treader's success later this year simply rubs salt into Disney's wounds.