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

[John park hopper]

Appears Snow White this weekend was a Snow Bust

 

[brideck]

Well Severance is good. I don’t know if I pay for it maybe I get it for free ?

If I am paying for it, it can’t be much.

Yeah, we don't have any Apple hardware in our house, so we're paying $10/month. Less than the average price of one ticket at the theater, which is ridiculously cheap in my book. Hence their losing $1b on it last year.

 

[Willmark]

Well you were mentioning Snow White Wish, and Strange World…

Yes I mentioned them in terms of potentially having SW landing the same level as the other two in terms of box office returns.

and did not say anything about just superhero movies… But in that regard the only marvel 1 in my mind that was an outright flop is The Marvels… Quatumania was a disappointment…

Eternals and Cap 4 didn’t do well either. ETA Thor love and Thunder? A quick read says that needed up pulling a profit.

the rest did ok…DC however is another story

DC is an odd duck. I think there was some good ideas in SS just badly executed. Same with Justice League. Then again I’ve never been a big fan of DC relative to Marvel.

 

[Tha Realest]

I think Apple is the best streaming service at the moment by a fair margin.

It's losing a billion dollars a year.

HBO still manages to produced exceptional content - GoT spin-off holding strong, White Lotus, etc - notwithstanding Zaslav’s destructive tendencies. All that said, not sure any streamer has fumbled an install base and brand goodwill like HBO has given its institutional advantages.

 

[Farerb]

I don't know that anyone here is claiming that all Disney movies used to be artistically great. That was never the case, regardless of the era or management team.

For every Mary Poppins, Walt had a The Ugly Dachshund and The Happiest Millionaire.

For every Herbie The Love Bug, Card Walker had a The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and The Boatniks.

For every Pete's Dragon, Ron Miller had a The Last Flight of Noah's Ark and a Herbie Goes Bananas.

For every The Little Mermaid, Michael Eisner had a The Rescuers Down Under and a Treasure Planet.

But what changed is the automatic assumption of parents that those movies were appropriate for their children. Now many parents are on guard for media products branded "Disney", and that's a huge cultural shift. And the brand suffers for it.

I personally always thought that Disney was always weak when it came to live action films with a few gems here and there like Mary Poppins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Pirates of the Caribbean, Enchanted, etc...
It's just that at least the live action films did their own thing and weren't used to disrespect and devalue animated classics.

 

[Tha Realest]

Where did I say that they were responsible for the costs associated with the fire damage?

All I said was it attributed to delays which increased costs. Filming wasn't underway yet, but construction of the sets and such were being built and they were damaged, so there is also some costs associated with that even if minimal. But its the delay that I'm talking about.

Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Set Catches Fire at Pinewood Studios

A fire has broken out on the set of 'Snow White' at Pinewood Studios in the U.K.

variety.com

You plainly asserted that “part of the reason for a larger budget was that Pinewood Studios where they were to film burned down.” Where’s there evidence that this increased their budget? The only thing we know of the budget is where it stood at the end of 2023 (before the reshoots and additional SFX). The known budget is completely in line with other similar EU-based live action films.

You assert the larger budget was from the delays. I’ll ask again - evidence in support of this assertion, either as to the delays or the higher budget?

 

[Disney Irish]

You plainly asserted that “part of the reason for a larger budget was that Pinewood Studios where they were to film burned down.” Where’s there evidence that this increased their budget? The only thing we know of the budget is where it stood at the end of 2023 (before the reshoots and additional SFX). The known budget is completely in line with other similar EU-based live action films.

You assert the larger budget was from the delays. I’ll ask again - evidence in support of this assertion, either as to the delays or the higher budget?

I don't have actual "evidence" such as in actual tax documents that state an actual line item that say "Cost for Pinewood Fire Damage". But it has been fairly well understood in the industry that any delays in production would increase the budget of said movie no matter the studio in which the delay happens. So yes it might an assumption, but one based on previously accepted understandings of the industry.

 

[coffeefan]

Virtually every other live action Disney remake made money.

So in the grand scheme of things, the live action remakes were a profitable venture for Disney.

 

[erasure fan1]

is there anyone who has replaced Disney in the "blind trust" category where you'll run out to see them regardless? Or is it that Disney is now just on a level playing field with everyone else in your eyes, where it'll just depend on a movie-by-movie basis?

None of the studios for me are blind trust. Here's where I think the disconnect is. I've never had 100% blind faith in Disney. I wouldn't go see every movie that came out from them. If it was something I had no interest in, or looked bad... I wouldn't go. The difference between then and now, is if I was on the fence, I would give them the benefit of the doubt and probably just go. Now I won't. I'll wait for the reviews first, if they're not good, just wait for streaming or skip it altogether.

The only things I've had blind faith in is Pixar up until about incredibles 2. And the mcu infinity saga.

 

[TP2000]

Final box office for Snow White this weekend has now come in, and it's been revised downward (again).

Domestic went from $43 Million estimate to $42,206,415.
Overseas went from $44 Million estimate to $43,907,066.

Spain, where the European premiere was held, pulled in a rather weak $2.6 Million for its opening weekend.

 

[TP2000]

I don't have actual "evidence" such as in actual tax documents that state an actual line item that say "Cost for Pinewood Fire Damage". But it has been fairly well understood in the industry that any delays in production would increase the budget of said movie no matter the studio in which the delay happens. So yes it might an assumption, but one based on previously accepted understandings of the industry.

This is the first I'm hearing that Snow White's budget and box office performance was doomed because of a studio fire.

The fire at Pinewood Studios happened on March 15th, 2022 as the set was being constructed for later use. So whatever increased costs of the March, 2022 fire are baked in to the $269,400,000 production budget figure released publicly by the UK government in December, 2023.

Then the movie was delayed for over a year for rework and rewrites and pushed to a March, 2025 opening.

The studio fire was three years ago. Whatever impact it had on the movie's early production in 2022 isn't responsible for the ballooning budget of rework in calendar year 2024 for its 2025 debut.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

4200 theaters, $10,049 per theater... so... lets say... $12 movie ticket average... (rough estimate across the entire country/formats)... so thats ~850 people per theater for the weekend....

What... 5 showings per day per theatre over a weekend.. so 15 showings...

56 people per showing. Average across the entire US.

 

[Disney Irish]

This is the first I'm hearing that Snow White's budget and box office performance was doomed because of a studio fire.

The fire at Pinewood Studios happened on March 15th, 2022 as the set was being constructed for later use. So whatever increased costs of the March, 2022 fire are baked in to the $269,400,000 production budget figure released publicly by the UK government in December, 2023.

Then the movie was delayed for over a year for rework and rewrites and pushed to a March, 2025 opening.

The studio fire was three years ago. Whatever impact it had on the movie's early production in 2022 isn't responsible for the ballooning budget of rework in calendar year 2024 for its 2025 debut.

You guys are really reading too much into what I posted.

All I said was there was an increase due to a delay related to the fire, that is all. I never claimed how much, though the number I've seen float around the internet is something like $7M in damages and maybe a few Million is delays (I don't know how accurate that is which is why I never posted specific numbers before). But you guys are trying to make it seem like I'm trying to say the entire budget increase was due to it, NOPE, not at all what I was saying. And NO DUH it has nothing to do with any further cost increases if any that occurred in 2024, never claimed it did.

Also I never said it was doomed because of the fire. I would say it was likely death by a thousand cuts that caused this production to be doomed, not any one particular thing. A bunch of things added together, including a flawed script (even though I enjoyed it), high budget even before all the delays increased costs, and a few other non-production related things.

 

[coffeefan]

 

[brideck]

4200 theaters, $10,049 per theater... so... lets say... $12 movie ticket average... (rough estimate across the entire country/formats)... so thats ~850 people per theater for the weekend....

What... 5 showings per day per theatre over a weekend.. so 15 showings...

56 people per showing. Average across the entire US.

Worse than that. Most theaters run it on multiple screens, which isn't reflected in the theater count. Locally, it was on ~3 screens per theater at our big multiplexes.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

Worse than that. Most theaters run it on multiple screens, which isn't reflected in the theater count. Locally, it was on ~3 screens per theater at our big multiplexes.

Ah!!! I am under the impression that 4200 theatres is individual movie screens... but is it address theatres? I mean yeah, up in Bishop CA, theyre showing it on one screen... but irvine must've had 5+ screens showing it.

So the industry metric of theatre is address location, not individual screens?

 

[Disney Irish]

Ah!!! I am under the impression that 4200 theatres is individual movie screens... but is it address theatres? I mean yeah, up in Bishop CA, theyre showing it on one screen... but irvine must've had 5+ screens showing it.

So the industry metric of theatre is address location, not individual screens?

Correct, as I think there are like ~40K screens in the US. Plus that number of theaters also includes Canada I believe.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

Ah! I was going to say, my arm waving average of 56 people per showing seemed a bit high... by dividing that by 5 resulting in 11.2 people per showing sounds about right with what people saw all weekend.

 

[HauntedPirate]

When I looked on Saturday at 5pm, my preferred local cinema had 20 screenings of 'Snow White' on Sunday, and 40 total tickets had been sold at that time. It was roughly the same the day prior for Saturday as well, and Friday had even fewer tickets sold in advance. Their monster screen (well over 150 seats) had 3 of 4 showings on Sunday completely empty when I looked.

 

[easyrowrdw]

I only noticed because I searched on biggest Disney busts and this came up:

https://collider.com/biggest-box-office-bombs-in-disney-history/

I’m guessing these are accurate numbers and if they are? Wow.

The noticeable thing is that for the biggest ones they are more recent (directionally.)

Those budgets are nuts.

Also, the Billy Bob Thornton Alamo is great. The audiences were wrong!! lol

the narrative "All Disney films used to be great but now none of them are," is a silly narrative largely fueled by a mix of nostalgia and concerns outside the quality of the film itself.

Lets take 2016, a year at which Disney is at the height of its power. Zootopia, Moana, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange! Wow!

Also Pete's Dragon, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The BFG... oops. Also Finding Dory and Jungle Book, neither of which was awful, but neither of which was particularly great.

I didn’t love all of those (I never saw BFG) but I would probably only cite Alice as an example of poor Disney quality. I personally think Jungle Book and Pete’s Dragon are the best of the remakes.

Personal opinions aside, other than Alice, the Metacritic ratings for each of the movies listed are also pretty good.
Zootopia: 78; Moana: 81; Captain America: Civil War: 75; Doctor Strange: 72; Pete's Dragon: 71; Alice Through the Looking Glass: 34; The BFG: 66; Finding Dory: 77; The Jungle Book: 77.*

I don't think Disney movies used to always be good before and are now terrible, but I do think their hit rate on quality used to be higher.

*Disclosure: I used Copilot to compile the list for me and then I checked its work