Disney (and others) at the Box Office - Current State of Affairs

[Tha Realest]

None of us here know the real motivation behind these 3 Pixar movies being released. But given it got no real marketing push we can guess that it wasn't meant to do much at the box office.

Here’s what the preeminent animation website offered as a reason:

Disney To Release 'Soul,' 'Turning Red,' And 'Luca' Theatrically For The First Time

The special engagement theatrical runs will launch in early 2024.

www.cartoonbrew.com

“Disney’s decision to release these films early next year signals an attempt by the company to repair the prestige of the Pixar brand ahead of releasing the high-profile sequel Inside Out 2. Further, Disney is taking advantage of a lull in the theatrical calendar. Currently, the majors have slated just one animated film – Kung Fu Panda 4 – to release theatrically in the first four months of next year, creating an opportunity for more family-friendly releases during this dry stretch.”

Audiences just didn’t show up

 

[Disney Irish]

Here’s what the preeminent animation website offered as a reason:

Disney To Release 'Soul,' 'Turning Red,' And 'Luca' Theatrically For The First Time

The special engagement theatrical runs will launch in early 2024.

www.cartoonbrew.com

“Disney’s decision to release these films early next year signals an attempt by the company to repair the prestige of the Pixar brand ahead of releasing the high-profile sequel Inside Out 2. Further, Disney is taking advantage of a lull in the theatrical calendar. Currently, the majors have slated just one animated film – Kung Fu Panda 4 – to release theatrically in the first four months of next year, creating an opportunity for more family-friendly releases during this dry stretch.”

Audiences just didn’t show up

And I don't really disagree with their take on it, but I also don't think Disney was really expecting some kind of huge box office take here. They threw these in theaters with very little marketing, I think I saw one trailer in the last 4-5 months and I go to the movies weekly, and hoped some would showed up. And yeah it didn't do very much at all, which given how little they were marketed should have been expected. I had hoped they would have done better, like other re-releases have (I even said so at the time), but they didn't.

I guess we'll see how Inside Out 2 does to see if Pixar has recovered or not.

 

[celluloid]

Here’s what the preeminent animation website offered as a reason:

Disney To Release 'Soul,' 'Turning Red,' And 'Luca' Theatrically For The First Time

The special engagement theatrical runs will launch in early 2024.

www.cartoonbrew.com

“Disney’s decision to release these films early next year signals an attempt by the company to repair the prestige of the Pixar brand ahead of releasing the high-profile sequel Inside Out 2. Further, Disney is taking advantage of a lull in the theatrical calendar. Currently, the majors have slated just one animated film – Kung Fu Panda 4 – to release theatrically in the first four months of next year, creating an opportunity for more family-friendly releases during this dry stretch.”

Audiences just didn’t show up

And Migration and Wonka are the ones that be fitted from that the way Disney thought they could.

 

[Disney Irish]

As has been said before, Pixar got “lucky” with the timing of Covid as it masked the inevitable box office failures of Onward, Luca, Turning Red, and Soul.

If not for Covid, we would be having an entirely different conversation about Pixar’s current disastrous run.

I would agree that some would have under performed, but I don't see any that would have been "disastrous" outside of maybe Lightyear had the pandemic not happened.

But we'll never know for sure.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

the Youtube anti-Disney crowd

aka nobodies.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

None of us here know the real motivation behind these 3 Pixar movies being released. But given it got no real marketing push we can guess that it wasn't meant to do much at the box office.

I can’t even see the other half of this conversation; but if you have to repeatedly explain something so basic and obvious, maybe it’s not worth the effort.

 

[DKampy]

Here's 4 on one simple search. And it's funnier because I fat fingered pixar and put in picar and it still came up. I'm sure there are plenty more as I'm not going to link them all. You can go look for yourself.

Uh you did. You specifically said Disneys box office isn't under scrutiny like I said it was. And that is absolutely a 100% false statement as I showed. You then said 2024 is a clean slate. While true, they are still absolutely under scrutiny, a clean slate doesn't absolve that.

Just to let you know… at least one of those YouTubers have admitted they have an anti-Disney narrative they are pushing… which I believe they all do to cater to their clickbait base… I would not trust any of those as reputable sources

 

[erasure fan1]

Just to let you know… at least one of those YouTubers have admitted they have an anti-Disney narrative they are pushing… which I believe they all do to cater to their clickbait base… I would not trust any of those as reputable sources

Oh I know, and it's more than one. I even said in my original post click bait headlines. The point wasn't they're right, the point was I was told it wasn't happening. It was all about the narrative that's all over YouTube and the Internet in general. It's why I said

I've seen MANY review channels with click bait titles like " Disneys box office failures continue"... "Another Disney bomb!"

And the only reason I even brought it up in the first place was because I was told from so many here, these channels/YouTubers had a very profound effect on the box office. If that's the case, then it's surprising Disney would choose to release these when it would only create more box office noise and really bring in nothing financially.

 

[celluloid]

I would agree that some would have under performed, but I don't see any that would have been "disastrous" outside of maybe Lightyear had the pandemic not happened.

But we'll never know for sure.

We totally know, because family movies and others around that time of Light-year outperformed it and later Encanto.

It's not a mystery. This was not a sudden thing
They have been producing less and less quality stuff for awhile.

This is why Kung Fu Panda just rocked so much more than Wish in opening weekends to be yet another animated people pleaser.

 

[Disney Irish]

We totally know, because family movies and others around that time of Light-year outperformed it and later Encanto.

It's not a mystery. This was not a sudden thing
They have been producing less and less quality stuff for awhile.

Except we don't as just 9 months prior to the pandemic Toy Story 4 raked in $1B WW. So we don't know exactly what would have happened with Onward for example if it had a full theatrical release, which was well received by both critics and audiences.

I agree that some would have under performed, and will even say that Lightyear would probably still have performed terribly. But with the others we don't know with any type of certainty how things would have turned out had things not happened the way they did.

We'll find out when Inside Out 2 comes out where things are right now. I don't think it'll pull in anything close to $1B but I think it'll do well.

 

[celluloid]

Except we don't as just 9 months prior to the pandemic Toy Story 4 raked in $1B WW. So we don't know exactly what would have happened with Onward for example if it had a full theatrical release, which was well received by both critics and audiences.

I agree that some would have under performed, and will even say that Lightyear would probably still have performed terribly. But with the others we don't know with any type of certainty how things would have turned out had things not happened the way they did.

We'll find out when Inside Out 2 comes out where things are right now. I don't think it'll pull in anything close to $1B but I think it'll do well.

Elemental Nor Disney animated films could not surpass a spinoff sequel of Shrek sequel characters.

Let that sink in to who is doing animated people pleasing better.

 

[Disney Irish]

Elemental could not surpass a spinoff sequel of Shrek sequel characters.

Let that sink in to who is doing animated people pleasing better.

You're not taking into account the D+ effect. Had the pandemic not occurred then Pixar theatrical wouldn't have been pushed to D+, which wouldn't have caused families to be trained to wait for Pixar releases until they come out on D+ (at least not in any meaningful way).

Anyways again we'll see what happens when Inside Out 2 comes out. They should be a good barometer to see where families are on Pixar right now.

 

[Miss Rori]

With all this chatter about the point of the Pixar rereleases, and the impressive take Kung Fu Panda 4 is already bringing in, I think a major question is being overlooked - why was Elio delayed? That was supposed to be Disney's big spring release (that and the snakebitten Snow White remake), and no one has ever explained why it was pushed back to next year. I know the strikes got a lot of stuff pushed back, but they could have just as easily pushed back Inside Out 2. I think the Pixar rereleases might have partially been a last-minute substitute for Elio, as well as a way to have something in theaters as Wish died on the vine.

 

[DKampy]

You're not taking into account the D+ effect. Had the pandemic not occurred then Pixar theatrical wouldn't have been pushed to D+, which wouldn't have caused families to be trained to wait for Pixar releases until they come out on D+ (at least not in any meaningful way).

Anyways again we'll see what happens when Inside Out 2 comes out. They should be a good barometer to see where families are on Pixar right now.

I would also like to point out before someone claims that Universal has Peacock… that I would gather that Disney plus has a much greater presence with families over Peacock and People expect Disney plus to get the Disney movies…. So I think it is quite likely that when families choose to spend their discerning dollars they opt for the movie that may not be coming to a streaming service they have

 

[LittleBuford]

Just watched Poor Things. Wow, what a special film! It deserves all the praise it’s received.

 

[Tha Realest]

We totally know, because family movies and others around that time of Light-year outperformed it and later Encanto.

It's not a mystery. This was not a sudden thing
They have been producing less and less quality stuff for awhile.

This is why Kung Fu Panda just rocked so much more than Wish in opening weekends to be yet another animated people pleaser.

Just checked. KFP4 opened much higher than KFP3. I also suspect it’ll have pretty decent legs. And it’s budget was only $85M.

I thought none of these things (making more money on sequels post-Covid, animation budgets under $200M) were possible anymore.

 

[Miss Rori]

Just checked. KFP4 opened much higher than KFP3. I also suspect it’ll have pretty decent legs. And it’s budget was only $85M.

KFP4 is the only (new) PG title in the marketplace, and there won't be another one until The Garfield Movie on Memorial Day weekend, so it's probably going to stick around the way Wonka and Migration managed to. Not to mention that it gets the Easter/spring break family outings all to itself in a few weeks. (The only potential competition for families might be Ghostbusters - Frozen Empire and/or Godzilla X Kong, and more the former than the latter.)

Given that a rising tide lifts all boats, I wonder if KFP4's trailer appearing before movies like Wonka and Migration gave it an extra boost? But it's great news for Dreamworks in any case; they're probably the most hit-and-miss of the U.S. animation studios right now, but they just keep plugging away and it pays off. (Their next film The Wild Robot looks extremely promising.)

Meanwhile, speaking of overperforming sequels, Dune Part Two's second weekend looks to come in stronger than the first weekend of the first movie. A trade article suggests it's going to be legging out because some people are still waiting to see it in a premium format like IMAX.

 

[pigglewiggle]

Just on the topic of popular movies. We watched Wonka today.

What a gem. Fantastic.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Just on the topic of popular movies. We watched Wonka today.

What a gem. Fantastic.

Saw it for the third time tonight, and it’s now on my DVR for good.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

You're not taking into account the D+ effect. Had the pandemic not occurred then Pixar theatrical wouldn't have been pushed to D+, which wouldn't have caused families to be trained to wait for Pixar releases until they come out on D+ (

How stupid are people who get “trained” by something happening 3 times? People are not dogs. They’re supposed to be able to reason and understand that something happening as an exception while movie theaters are closed(!) is not going to happen forever.