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

[Casper Gutman]

What you describe is not “passive-aggressive” behavior. You can trust me on that one.

But you’re correct about discussing social/political issues being against the TOS.

The difficulty is separating this film in particular and the discourse around it from its social/ political connotations.

In fact, the idea that media can be separated from social/ political considerations is a social/ political consideration. But the boards owners get to set the rules, which is fair enough.

 

[Disney Irish]

Did Bog Iger even acknowledge it during the shareholder call this week?

Yes he did.

 

[LittleBuford]

I’m curious - did any of the posters defending Zegler expect the film to do well?

No, not at all.

(I wouldn’t call it defending Zegler as such, but rather pushing for a less sensationalised and tendentious approach to her words.)

 

[Prince-1]

I’m at a track meet

Run fast.

 

[brideck]

I’m curious - did any of the posters defending Zegler expect the film to do well?

Against its budget? No. For gross? I'd expect it to be in the top... 25 or so for the year. That puts it firmly in the "one of the few movies people have actually heard of" category.

 

[WoundedDreamer]

The $270 million production number is brutal. It's almost exactly the same as the Little Mermaid's inflation adjusted production cost. I can sort of see how the Little Mermaid's undersea scenes could push production costs higher. There's no way to shoot "Under the Sea" practically. It was going to be a heavy VFX film, and with that comes a high price tag. It puzzles me that Snow White's spend was as much or even more. Were the dwarves that expensive?!?! Expensive reshoots seem to be the only answer. When the press, audiences, and budgets point to reshoots... It was probably reshoots.

I'm also wondering whether this $270 million number is before or after United Kingdom tax credits. Snow White was filmed in the United Kingdom, so it should be eligible for the grant. The Marvels cost ~$274 million to create, but it was softened with a ~$55 million tax credit that brought the production cost down to $220 million. Snow White might benefit from the same credit arrangement. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait for government documents to trickle out over the next few years. If this includes the tax credit, Snow White's actual production cost would have been in the $300 millions. That would be insane.

This film is a black eye for Disney. This first half of 2025 is a weaker showing for Walt Disney Studios, but I'm optimistic about the second half of the year.

 

[Trauma]

Ok we can wrap this up. Film is going to lose money.

The spin is, it was never going to make money to begin with.

Zegler didn’t hurt the film at all.

If you have anything negative to say you are probably a racist you just don’t know it.

If anyone from Disney is reading this board please hire on of the genius minds here. They could have told you this was never going to make money and saved you a lot trouble.

The end.

 

[brideck]

The $270 million production number is brutal. It's almost exactly the same as the Little Mermaid's inflation adjusted production cost. I can sort of see how the Little Mermaid's undersea scenes could push production costs higher. There's no way to shoot "Under the Sea" practically. It was going to be a heavy VFX film, and with that comes a high price tag. It puzzles me that Snow White's spend was as much or even more.

You say this, but is there much in the way of cheaper, practical production design in this movie at all? Virtually every shot from the trailer looks like an FX shot of one stripe or another, but maybe that's not the case. Would anyone who's seen it already care to comment?

 

[Disney Irish]

You say this, but is there much in the way of cheaper, practical production design in this movie at all? Virtually every shot from the trailer looks like an FX shot of one stripe or another, but maybe that's not the case. Would anyone who's seen it already care to comment?

It was VFX heavy, anytime an animal was on screen (which was like 90% of the time, it is Snow White after all the original animal tamer) it’s a VFX shot.

 

[LittleBuford]

The spin is, it was never going to make money to begin with.

It really isn’t spin. You can go back and check the relevant posts if you don’t believe me.

Zegler didn’t hurt the film at all.

I’m sure the Zegler stuff hasn’t helped, but the film has also done really badly in markets where I don’t think her statements were widely publicised.

 

[Trauma]

It really isn’t spin. You can go back and check the relevant posts if you don’t believe me.


I’m sure the Zegler stuff hasn’t helped, but the film has also done really badly in markets where I don’t think her statements were widely publicised.

Why did they make the movie if it was so obvious it was going to lose money ?

 

[DKampy]

As for thinking the Anora is p*rn is one of the most ridiculous thing you’ve said and that is saying something. I mean you and Fareb are just embarrassing yourselves with this. Honestly you basically just described every R rated movie that’s been released. What a joke!!

Their analysis of Anora can be disregarded once they came to that conclusion by reading the MPAA rating…. As they would never actually watch the film

 

[Tony the Tigger]

You, Chi, Disney Irish, Tony and others constantly think you can gang up on people here and disrespect them just because you don't like their opinions.

I'm done with this game, find someone else to harass.

This is a very strange assessment of the situation, IMO. Disagreeing is not ganging up. However, you seem to be escalating. I don’t know your mental state or age, so this will be the last post I read from you. Time to use my favorite feature on this site: Ignore.

Rational disagreement is one thing. These hysterics do not bring me joy.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Why did they make the movie if it was so obvious it was going to lose money ?

Because They are milking the live-action remakes to death without much further thought about the film being remade.

 

[LittleBuford]

Why did they make the movie if it was so obvious it was going to lose money ?

I think the remake could have succeeded had they approached it differently. But once the CGI dwarfs were unveiled, I lost all hope.

Again, the posts are all there if you doubt me. I really don’t recall many people here claiming the film was likely to do well.

 

[Disney Irish]

Why did they make the movie if it was so obvious it was going to lose money ?

I don’t think any studio intentionally sets out to make a movie that will lose money (rare exceptions are passion projects).

However after a certain point during production a studio hits a point of no return and must finish a movie and release it in order to recoup at least some of the costs associated with production.

 

[MagicMouseFan]

This is a very strange assessment of the situation, IMO. Disagreeing is not ganging up. However, you seem to be escalating. I don’t know your mental state or age, so this will be the last post I read from you. Time to use my favorite feature on this site: Ignore.

Rational disagreement is one thing. These hysterics do not bring me joy.

Sure you should be talking Tony?
I remember you and you should sit this one out.

You were not rational with me on any level.
Won’t ever forget it

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I think the remake could have succeeded had they approached it differently. But once the CGI dwarfs were unveiled, I lost all hope.

Again, the posts are all there if you doubt me. I really don’t recall many people here claiming the film was likely to do well.

They were a mixed bag, varying from dwarf to dwarf. Dopey and Doc were noticeably well done. Grumpy…it depended on the shot, IMO. But I’m no fan of cgi.

Would humans have been better? As far as acting and connecting, of course. But when you see them in action, I think certain scenes would have been harder to shoot - unless they reversed it and used people, but made the background cgi.

I think a Mary Poppins effect may have worked - but I think their choice was consistent with the other remakes (that I’ve seen.)

 

[LittleBuford]

They were a mixed bag, varying from dwarf to dwarf. Dopey and Doc were noticeably well done. Grumpy…it depended on the shot, IMO. But I’m no fan of cgi.

Would humans have been better? As far as acting and connecting, of course. But when you see them in action, I think certain scenes would have been harder to shoot - unless they reversed it and used people, but made the background cgi.

I think a Mary Poppins effect may have worked - but I think their choice was consistent with the other remakes (that I’ve seen.)

Based on the clips I’ve seen, the dwarfs look very off to me. But I’ll have a better sense of how they work after I actually watch the film.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

Who goes to the theater at 10:00 on a Saturday morning?

Obviously nobody... the same as this 2pm showing right now (taken after 2 so this includes walk up).