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

[Disney Irish]

For theaters to do well, studios must make movies that people want to buy tickets for and go to the theater to watch.

Theaters cannot do well screening movies to empty theaters or near empty theaters.

Except theaters aren't in the movie business they are in the concession business. So the actual ticket sales are secondary to the people buying popcorn, soda, and candy. So they don't care what movie is playing.

So the point is that all studios have ended up pushing out movies that don't draw an audience over the years. We just happen to track one particular studio, but all have had their issues over the last couple years, but especially so far in 2025. We'll see what happens next week.

 

[Disney Irish]

Here is the full theater for Revenge of the Sith tonight. It's been a long time since I've seen this theater this packed. It should be a ball!

View attachment 855498

Its nice to see the Prequels do well even on re-release.

Disney was smart to do that for the 20th leading up to Star Wars Day next week.

 

[HoustonHorn]

Holy cow. Here is my 6:45 tomorrow night!

 

[BrianLo]

But it reinforces the Google searches that told me most big Hollywood studio movies are lucky to earn 60% of ticket sales domestically, and 40% of ticket sales overseas for their American studios.

Yup! That’s always been a ok.

I'm guessing they consider "Home Entertainment" to be someone renting Mufasa via Amazon Prime for the night, versus "TV and Streaming" as someone who watched Mufasa via their existing Disney+ subscription payments. How on earth they get those numbers is a mystery, especially considering Disney+ is only creating a few hundred million in revenue per quarter.

Direct to consumer makes 6 billion of revenue a quarter and counting. I think this is what you don’t understand. It reports a meagre profit because it spends most of that revenue on content. Like paying 175 million towards Mufasa. That’s where the money goes.

How much time is Deadline giving Mufasa to generate that $290 Million in future profit from streaming services? Two years? Five years? Thirty years?

The streaming receipts are usually the payout for two years that they amortize over.

The Deadline equation also reinforces that using half the production budget for "Marketing" is a good practice, and if anything is erring on Burbank's side just like the 60/40 thing.

Check out Sonic though. That’s my criticism, you really don’t have a great way of figuring out the marketing costs.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I do the same with excess nudity and profanity. I've found excess gore gets stupid and ridiculous after a while.

The anger in excess profanity just hurts emotionally. I don't think I could endure 500 instances of it in a 2h+ movie.

I insist upon excess profanity.

Don't ever watch Succession! The only adjective they know is the f-word - makes no difference what is being described lol.

Sounds like Home! (Jersey.)

I was so disillusioned by the first prequel, which I brought at least 20 people to the theater with me to see at midnight when it was first released, that I did not bother to see the next two films until I was temporarily renting a small room with no cable television, just a DVD player. I found both Dvds at a pawnshop for maybe two dollars each, and I didn’t hate them.

Hayden Christiansen is insufferably whiny. Since there’s absolutely nothing I’m interested in seeing at the theater this week, I may go just to see it on the big screen for the first time… and watch that little so and so burn.

Then again, I may not. I have a brief WDW visit coming up to plan.

P.S. no gory movies, thanks.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Thanks @brideck for alerting me!

I believe in the power of 2.5X (or less!)




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Revenge/Return of Mufasa.

Returns of Mufasa?

Subtitle: WDWmagic Debbie Downers and Sonic Fans Eat Their Words With Artificial Butter.

 

[Baloo124]

Here is the full theater for Revenge of the Sith tonight. It's been a long time since I've seen this theater this packed. It should be a ball!

View attachment 855498

Holy cow. Here is my 6:45 tomorrow night!

I just wonder how it will be received by audiences with so many spoilers already leaked.
I've already read on several occasion that

Spoiler

Obi-Wan gets the high ground

and

Spoiler

In Anakins point of view, the Jedi are evil.

 

[brideck]

Check out Sonic though. That’s my criticism, you really don’t have a great way of figuring out the marketing costs.

Or any of the others, really. It varies so widely that there is no formula you could use to estimate it properly. I've been updating my initial post with links.

10 - Sonic 3 - $123.6m
9 - Mufasa - $175.0m
8 - Kung Fu Panda 4 - $178.0m
7 - Dune: Part Two - $184.3m
6 - It Ends With Us - $207.0m

Here are the listed production cost/marketing cost numbers for those five:
122/125
200/135
85/125
190/155.3
25/60

 

[BrianLo]

Or any of the others, really. It varies so widely that there is no formula you could use to estimate it properly. I've been updating my initial post with links.



Here are the listed production cost/marketing cost numbers for those five:
122/125
200/135
85/125
190/155.3
25/60

Budget is indeed a very poor corollary to marketing. Putting out a tentpole cheaply does not escape tentpole marketing. This was quite illustrative.

 

[DKampy]

I just wonder how it will be received by audiences with so many spoilers already leaked.
I've already read on several occasion that

Spoiler

Obi-Wan gets the high ground

and

Spoiler

In Anakins point of view, the Jedi are evil.

yeah The leaks were awful… someone needs to be terminated immediately…. I saw the entire script in video form 20 years ago .. in a movie theater no less

 

[Phroobar]

It was a packed room. It opened with Hyden thanking everyone for coming to see the re-release. There were a couple of guys in jedi robes mostly to smuggle in candy for their group. The movie ended with thunderous applause. I think they had a great time. It would be interesting to see how much this re-release makes this weekend.

 

[Ghost93]

It was a packed room. It opened with Hyden thanking everyone for coming to see the re-release. There were a couple of guys in jedi robes mostly to smuggle in candy for their group. The movie ended with thunderous applause. I think they had a great time. It would be interesting to see how much this re-release makes this weekend.

I saw Revenge of the Sith in theaters for the first time Thursday night as I never got the chance to see it in theaters back in 2005. While objectively not the best Star Wars movie, it's my personal favorite. Mostly because of Ian McDiarmad's wonderfully over-the-top evil performance as Palpatine. While everyone else is under-acting and being quite stiff and stilted in the prequels, he goes waaaaay in the other direction into full camp. His cackling reminds me of the Evil Queen in Snow White (in her hag form).

I think ROTS should have been put into theaters in February or March, when it was quite dead at the box office. I'm sure Disney wasn't anticipating Brave New World or Snow White to bomb as much as they did, but still. They should have at least known a ROTS re-release would appeal to guys who would never be caught dead watching a Disney Princess film, and it could have been good counter-programming.

 

[Phroobar]

I saw Revenge of the Sith in theaters for the first time Thursday night as I never got the chance to see it in theaters back in 2005. While objectively not the best Star Wars movie, it's my personal favorite. Mostly because of Ian McDiarmad's wonderfully over-the-top evil performance as Palpatine. While everyone else is under-acting and being quite stiff and stilted in the prequels, he goes waaaaay in the other direction into full camp. His cackling reminds me of the Evil Queen in Snow White (in her hag form).

I think ROTS should have been put into theaters in February or March, when it was quite dead at the box office. I'm sure Disney wasn't anticipating Brave New World or Snow White to bomb as much as they did, but still. They should have at least known a ROTS re-release would appeal to guys who would never be caught dead watching a Disney Princess film, and it could have been good counter-programming.

McDiarmad is totally the star of the movie. For a twenty year old movie the CG is really good. The picture looked great and the sound was incredible. ROTS is the best of the prequels and in my opinion better than most of what Disney has produced (except the Gilroy stuff and animation). It's a long movie and does drag a times. I did notice how wimpy Padme was in this movie compared to episode 2 where she's running around shooting battle droids and escaping from that cat creature.

 

[Phroobar]

How come there is no 10th Anniversary re-release of The Force Awakens?

 

[Agent H]

How come there is no 10th Anniversary re-release of The Force Awakens?

My guess. The nostalgia factor isn’t there yet. Give it another 10 years or so.

 

[Phroobar]

My guess. The nostalgia factor isn’t there yet. Give it another 10 years or so.

I don't think there was a 20th anniversary re-release of Attack of the Clones. The original trilogy all had anniversary releases as well as The Phantom Menace.

I guess there will never be a re-release of Rise of Skywalker, The Last Jedi and Solo.

 

[Agent H]

I don't think there was a 20th anniversary re-release of Attack of the Clones. The original trilogy all had anniversary releases as well as The Phantom Menace.

I guess there will never be a re-release of Rise of Skywalker, The Last Jedi and Solo.

Well when attack of the clones turned 20 years old we were still in a pandemic and Disney was still focused 100 percent on streaming. I could see a hypothetical discussion at Disney about re-releasing it ending with them deciding it wouldn’t be worth it to to release it to theaters when they could make a instagram post telling people it was the 20th anniversary and to watch it on Disney+

 

[Baloo124]

How come there is no 10th Anniversary re-release of The Force Awakens?

10 years already? Ok now this discussion is starting to make me feel old.

And guess which Disney animated feature turns 30 this summer?

Spoiler

Not bad but not my favorite. Drags quite a bit in areas story wise, but still though, great animation and some BEAUTIFUL songs.
But 30 yrs since its release?? Yeah, I'm definitely feeling old.

 

[Phroobar]

Well when attack of the clones turned 20 years old we were still in a pandemic and Disney was still focused 100 percent on streaming. I could see a hypothetical discussion at Disney about re-releasing it ending with them deciding it wouldn’t be worth it to to release it to theaters when they could make a instagram post telling people it was the 20th anniversary and to watch it on Disney+

Well, during 2020 they did re-release the Empire Strikes Back for it's 40th anniversary right in the middle of covid. There where a few theaters still open. (one guy at the snack bar treating us like we were zombies or something. He temperature checked us and scanned our phone ticket from arm's length! ) We got a private screening of it back then.

 

[Phroobar]

10 years already? Ok now this discussion is starting to make me feel old.

And guess which Disney animated feature turns 30 this summer?

Spoiler

View attachment 855576

Not bad but not my favorite. Drags quite a bit in areas story wise, but still though, great animation and some BEAUTIFUL songs.
But 30 yrs since its release?? Yeah, I'm definitely feeling old.

I thought Disney disowned that movie.