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

[TP2000]

Fun Facts about 1937:

A 1937 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Sedan cost $650
Movie tickets for first run films in big cities cost 25 cents
A gallon of gas was 22 cents
A gallon of milk was 10 cents
A loaf of bread was 9 cents
Ground beef was 12 cents per pound

And Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves pulled in $185 Million at the box office, one 25 cent movie ticket at a time! Incredible.

 

[BrianLo]

Here's a fun comparison chart gang, just for giggles!...

Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Presented in Technicolor
Vs.
Rachel Zegler's Snow White, Presented by the HR Department

What's surprising to me is that after this rather dismal debut weekend for Snow White, it might not even match the domestic box office of the 1937 original not adjusted for 88 years of inflation from the depths of the Great Depression!

View attachment 849517

Will 2025's Snow White actually get to $184 Million at the domestic box office after this weekend's floppy debut? It looks like a very steep hill to climb for that to happen, but I guess its potentially doable with a sharp box office turnaround.

And adjusted for inflation, the 1937 original did 1.5 Billion at the box office. Miss White was the original Barbie mega-hit, which allowed Walt to build the Burbank campus and the media empire that defined American culture for decades to come and built a little thing called Disneyland.

But for now, let's just party like its 1937 and see if the new Snow White can match the original in 1937 dollars.

It will not hit 184 million in nominal dollars. That’s out after this weekends opening and CinemaScore. Though Snows’ original figures are a very complicated multi decade long tally consisting of many theatrical re-releases.

Some good comps for you for next weekend are Dumbo (a benchmark it won’t hit), but also Alice Through the looking Glass and The Marvels.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

If I was betting man I’d currently set the over/under on this movie at $350 million worldwide, even then I think I’d take the under.

It’ll be interesting to see if it does reasonable numbers next week or if it’ll drop like a rock, anything more than the average 40% drop and it’s cooked.

 

[TP2000]

It will not hit 184 million in nominal dollars. That’s out after this weekends opening and CinemaScore. Though Snows’ original figures are a very complicated multi decade long tally consisting of many theatrical re-releases.

Some good comps for you for next weekend are Dumbo (a benchmark it won’t hit), but also Alice Through the looking Glass and The Marvels.

Ohhh!!! I hadn't thought that the $185 Million is a decades long total racking up multiple re-releases. Great point!

Welp, that just means I'll have to go a Googling for the 1937 first-run tally. I was also surprised at how tiny the overseas box office was. I imagine most, if not all, came from the UK. But apparently American blockbusters weren't playing overseas at that time. I didn't realize it was so limited to the USA!

 

[BrianLo]

Ohhh!!! I hadn't thought that the $185 Million is a decades long total racking up multiple re-releases. Great point!

Welp, that just means I'll have to go a Googling for the 1937 first-run tally. I was also surprised at how tiny the overseas box office was. I imagine most, if not all, came from the UK. But apparently American blockbusters weren't playing overseas at that time. I didn't realize it was so limited to the USA!

It did very well! Plus continues to make money for eons and is the starting staple of the Disney Princess line, something worth 10’s of billions.

But Disneyland was built on the back of Cinderella. Then nearly crashed on the back of Aurora.

 

[TP2000]

Okay, an 8 second Google search returned this info...

Snow White debuted in LA in December, 1937 but it wasn't released nationally until February, 1938. It was the highest grossing movie of 1938, and it made $8 Million domestically that year and $2 Million overseas, on a budget of $1.5 Million.

Adjusted for inflation, that's a budget of $33 Million and a global box office of $223 Million in today's money.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Fun Facts about 1937:

A 1937 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Sedan cost $650
Movie tickets for first run films in big cities cost 25 cents
A gallon of gas was 22 cents
A gallon of milk was 10 cents
A loaf of bread was 9 cents
Ground beef was 12 cents per pound

And Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves pulled in $185 Million at the box office, one 25 cent movie ticket at a time! Incredible.

I am in more of a pixie duster mood these days, but I must say, it seems like this new Snow White misses the spirit of the original in the same way the dull grey Peter Pan and Wendy missed the magical spirit of Disney’s OG Peter Pan. The original Snow was presumably modeled after a Golden Age Hollywood starlet with pin curls and a dramatic, breathy voice. The 1930s vibe just seems so central to the movie. Nothing wrong with a politically minded girl boss princess with a sensible bob, but it should have been a spinoff based on Snow White’s daughter or something like that.

 

[TP2000]

One other thing just hit me...

The 1937 debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was a big night for Hollywood in general, not just for Walt Disney. The economy had crashed again into a severe recession in 1936-37 and the movie industry (and a downtrodden nation) needed a huge hit. Walt Disney delivered it for them, and the rest is now history and why we're here on this discussion forum in the fantastically future year of 2025.

And Disney owns an exact replica of the Carthay Circle Theater themed inside to Snow White and has a giant 2,000 seat luxury theater sitting empty 50 yards down a fake 1930's Hollywood Blvd.

And yet they didn't use this DCA facility for the premiere and splashy publicity party?!? Why?!?

I have to think they had a plan to host the Snow White premiere at DCA, using the Hyperion Theater as the movie venue and the Carthay Circle Restaurant and Lounge as the party pad after the debut. And the private 1901 Lounge could have been used as the VIP Lounge where Miss Zegler held court for the media in one of those curtained off little banquettes near the bar.

But.... NOPE! Nothing. The "premiere" was closed to the press and was basically a non-event.

How weird. I'd bet two churros there's a story there, and the DCA venues were proposed for the premiere at one point.

 

[Agent H]

One other thing just hit me...

The 1937 debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was a big night for Hollywood in general, not just for Walt Disney. The economy had crashed again into a severe recession in 1936-37 and the movie industry (and a downtrodden nation) needed a huge hit. Walt Disney delivered it for them, and the rest is now history and why we're here on this discussion forum in the fantastically future year of 2025.

And Disney owns an exact replica of the Carthay Circle Theater themed inside to Snow White and has a giant 2,000 seat luxury theater sitting empty just down a fake Hollywood Blvd.

And yet they didn't use this DCA facility for the premiere and splashy publicity party?!? Why?!?

I have to think they had a plan to host the Snow White premiere at DCA, using the Hyperion Theater as the movie venue and the Carthay Circle Restaurant and Lounge as the party pad after the debut. And the private 1901 Lounge could have been used as the VIP Lounge where Miss Zegler held court for the media in one of those curtained off little banquettes near the bar.

But.... NOPE! Nothing. The "premiere" was closed to the press and was basically a non-event.

How weird. I'd bet two churros there's a story there, and the DCA venues were proposed for the premiere at one point.

Now that is a good point.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

One other thing just hit me...

The 1937 debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was a big night for Hollywood in general, not just for Walt Disney. The economy had crashed again into a severe recession in 1936-37 and the movie industry (and a downtrodden nation) needed a huge hit. Walt Disney delivered it for them, and the rest is now history and why we're here on this discussion forum in the fantastically future year of 2025.

And Disney owns an exact replica of the Carthay Circle Theater themed inside to Snow White and has a giant 2,000 seat luxury theater sitting empty 50 yards down a fake 1930's Hollywood Blvd.

And yet they didn't use this DCA facility for the premiere and splashy publicity party?!? Why?!?

I have to think they had a plan to host the Snow White premiere at DCA, using the Hyperion Theater as the movie venue and the Carthay Circle Restaurant and Lounge as the party pad after the debut. And the private 1901 Lounge could have been used as the VIP Lounge where Miss Zegler held court for the media in one of those curtained off little banquettes near the bar.

But.... NOPE! Nothing. The "premiere" was closed to the press and was basically a non-event.

How weird. I'd bet two churros there's a story there, and the DCA venues were proposed for the premiere at one point.

I was wondering this exact thing when they announced the weird Spanish castle premiere. It made so much sense...

The Carthay Circle Theatre is SO important to the Disney company they built it as the central symbol for their themepark (after some work to get to that point). They're recreated the film tha is the reason for that connection and not a SINGLE peep of the physical space they created? They could have recreated the original opening night and made it a massive glamorous golden age of Hollywood themed premiere.

If, and meaning when, it was a conversation at some point, it's obvious the powers at be wanted to have as little as possible to do with the original because they wanted to modernize it.

 

[Tha Realest]

I don't remember people saying this movie would be a commercial hit. It faced too many obstacles and controversies along the way.
At least it seems to be well liked by its target audience - little girls.

Virtually every other live action Disney remake made money.

One other thing just hit me...

The 1937 debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was a big night for Hollywood in general, not just for Walt Disney. The economy had crashed again into a severe recession in 1936-37 and the movie industry (and a downtrodden nation) needed a huge hit. Walt Disney delivered it for them, and the rest is now history and why we're here on this discussion forum in the fantastically future year of 2025.

And Disney owns an exact replica of the Carthay Circle Theater themed inside to Snow White and has a giant 2,000 seat luxury theater sitting empty 50 yards down a fake 1930's Hollywood Blvd.

And yet they didn't use this DCA facility for the premiere and splashy publicity party?!? Why?!?

I have to think they had a plan to host the Snow White premiere at DCA, using the Hyperion Theater as the movie venue and the Carthay Circle Restaurant and Lounge as the party pad after the debut. And the private 1901 Lounge could have been used as the VIP Lounge where Miss Zegler held court for the media in one of those curtained off little banquettes near the bar.

But.... NOPE! Nothing. The "premiere" was closed to the press and was basically a non-event.

How weird. I'd bet two churros there's a story there, and the DCA venues were proposed for the premiere at one point.

Because the two leads are a don’t invite’m item along the lines of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.

 

[LittleBuford]

Virtually every other live action Disney remake made money.

Yes, but the claim being made is that a significant number of posters here were declaring it would do well. That just didn’t happen.

 

[MagicMouseFan]

Yes, but the claim being made is that a significant number of posters here were declaring it would do well. That just didn’t happen.

I said it would do 600 million and place it in between Cinderella and Mermaid.
Felt there was no reason it shouldn’t have if the movie scored well with audiences and controversy was non existent.
It was never going to make the billion dollar mark Disney believed back in 2019. Different time.

 

[The Mom]

Clearly there are differing opinions on the usefulness of AI.

I think it's fine if you want a quick answer to something that has no consequences but that's about it.

I prefer not to read long AI generated text but unless it violates the TOS (and I think it's close) I can easily skip over it.

As long as it is labelled as such, it is OK. But keep it short! It's like posting links to articles. As long as you are not representing them as your own thoughts, it is OK.

I agree that I'm never going to use AI to express myself. There are several posters who have been posting articulate opinions for years - long before AI became more common.

There are many "older" posters who remember the days of typewritten, double-spaced, onionskin theme papers. With footnotes. Many people considered a word processor with the capacity to back-space for corrections, and using cut, copy, and paste to reorient sentences and paragraphs, along with spellcheck and grammarly, a form of cheating.

 

[The Mom]

Please remember the no politics rule. Thank you.

 

[Ayla]

I have never used it and never shall (at least not willingly or knowingly—I hate the fact that it’s now woven into Google searches).

You can use AI-less google. I do. I abhor AI and refuse to use it.

 

[LittleBuford]

You can use AI-less google. I do. I abhor AI and refuse to use it.

Thanks! Using a browser extension or a special URL?

 

[Ayla]

Thanks! Using a browser extension or a special URL?

I either use duckduckgo or if I don't want to switch to a different browser (I usually use chrome), I just put -ai at the end of any search query.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

The murmurs of it not having legs and not cracking 300m worldwide for its run have now become casual conversation... and the murmurs in the dark shadows have now become it could possibly not even make back its budget.

Shaping out to be the tsar bomba of bombs.

 

[LittleBuford]

I either use duckduckgo or if I don't want to switch to a different browser (I usually use chrome), I just put -ai at the end of any search query.

Thank you!