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

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The poster was providing an absolutist opinion:


I am just pointing out some of the many examples out where the posters own presented logic fails.

In addition, they posted that in direct response to possible large price increases to tickets because of new tariffs implying that movies that may be released under those tariffs that don't do well at the box office are just bad. Pricing apparently doesn't have any real impact despite us seeing the exact opposite on the parks front?

Look, we all know there are plenty of good to great movies that fail at the box office and many trash movies that do well so let's stop trying to pretend that the box office is some be all indication of the quality of a given movie. It is a good place to start but leaves a VERY incomplete picture.

Yeah…but you know it’s disingenuous to claim absolutes

Obviously there are outliers…but the point is valid: most movies tank because they suck…in the wash. It’s patterns that matter…not individualized case studies

That’s what’s been going on for the Dis…just really bad story and character choices…

The added wrinkle is that the collector movie market has started to possible reject things due to saturation?

It certainly seems possible. We might be getting “no mas”on MCU and live action remakes. So they are gonna have to address that…

…more frozen…I’m sure.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The poster didn't specify Marvel movies nor were Marvel movies being mentioned in the post they were responding.

What’s being discussed today? There was exactly one new movie that didn’t exactly pack em in?

 

[Nubs70]

Time for the daily Reminder: what is the goal of releasing a movie again?

Maximize Return On Capital Employed

 

[Agent H]

Your mistake was comparing actual movies to the never-ending stream of episodic junk that pours out of the Marvel content factory.

You’re saying this like it’s an absolute 100 percent fact which it is not.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Maximize Return On Capital Employed

I was gonna say “sell more crap”…but I’ll accept your answer

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You’re saying this like it’s an absolute 100 percent fact which it is not.

It’s a pattern…you can plot the downward trajectory on a chart

 

[Disstevefan1]

Maximize Return On Capital Employed

Its too bad Disney's movie business does not understand this concept.

Disney's theme park business for sure understands this concept.

 

[DKampy]

Would $48 million have been considered bad for an original R-rated horror movie?

Get Out had a $33 million opening. Us was an all-time high that benefited from Peele's established reputation after

That is why I went with Us as opposed to Get Out….. both were original horror…..but Us came out after Peele had establish himself with Get Out…. Just as Coogler is already an establish director with the likes of Black Panther and Creed

 

[Agent H]

It’s an especially odd statement from a Disney fan. Unless he considers Fantasia, Alice in Wonderland, and Sleeping Beauty bad movies.

Adding to this Hercules treasure planet and encanto all underperformed and I wouldn’t say those are bad movies either.

 

[Disstevefan1]

This has never ever ever been true.

You're right, there have always been bad movies, just the excuses for failure have changed

 

[DKampy]

Black Panther also, technically Deadpool too but that was Fox at the time and not part of the MCU, but for the most part I agree that Thunderbolts is in the same ballpark as other debut stories.

Deadpool did cross my mind… but as you said it was not the MCU… so I did not count it…. For some reason Black Panther slipped my mind as I typed right before bed…. But that movie had circumstances that were outside the MCU brand

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I understand that it is difficult, if not impossible, to discuss box office numbers without getting political - I appreciate and thank those who have managed to do it - but the no politics rule still applies.

May I ask for clarification? (Publicly only so that the group are all on the same page.)

I am at Epcot right now, so didn’t read back to see what got deleted or not. I posted a news article without political comment, which directly affects this discussion in a huge way. Is that cool? I presume we can discuss the tariffs without saying comments about the person implementing them? If these tariffs happen, they will have a huge effect on this discussion. Thanks in advance. I did notice some posts crossed that line. I specifically tried not to.

 

[Prince-1]

White House Says “No Final Decisions” Have Been Made on Movie Tariffs, Still “Exploring All Options”

The administration says it is still intent on "Making Hollywood Great Again" though it suggests it will take time for tariff plan to come to fruition.

www.yahoo.com

Not surprising but the tariffs on foreign made movies may actually not be happening,

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

White House Says “No Final Decisions” Have Been Made on Movie Tariffs, Still “Exploring All Options”

The administration says it is still intent on "Making Hollywood Great Again" though it suggests it will take time for tariff plan to come to fruition.

www.yahoo.com

Not surprising but the tariffs on foreign made movies may actually not be happening,

That should solve the “political” talk issue.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

That is why I went with Us as opposed to Get Out….. both were original horror…..but Us came out after Peele had establish himself with Get Out…. Just as Coogler is already an establish director with the likes of Black Panther and Creed

And it had a higher opening than Creed.

 

[Dranth]

Yeah…but you know it’s disingenuous to claim absolutes

Of course it is, which is why the poster shouldn't have presented it as an absolute or if they didn't mean it as one, at least include some language to indicate that. Not being more precise with words is one of the big issues we have with folks talking past each other.

Obviously there are outliers…but the point is valid: most movies tank because they suck…in the wash. It’s patterns that matter…not individualized case studies

See, I am not sure I completely agree with this either. I think movies don't do well for a lot of reasons and being bad might be a plurality, but I don't think it is a majority if we are looking at main stream releases.

Yes, many are bad, but some movies are just released at the wrong time, going up against a massive hit. Some have subject matter people aren't ready to or don't want to deal with. Others release into tough financial times that weren't expected when the film started production. Still more just release into a crowded market and there aren't enough theater going customers to support them all. Some fail to get any marketing backing from the studio and die in obscurity. Others suffer from fatigue of a particular genre. Etc.

Sure, many of those reasons could potentially be attributed to studios not understanding current market forces or just plain not reading the room, but that does not make them bad movies.

That’s what’s been going on for the Dis…just really bad story and character choices…

They haven't had the consistency they used to in recent years, but they have put out good movies, some of which didn't do well in the box office.

The added wrinkle is that the collector movie market has started to possible reject things due to saturation?

I am sure that is one factor.

It certainly seems possible. We might be getting “no mas”on MCU and live action remakes. So they are gonna have to address that…

Like it or not, we will get more of both.

…more frozen…I’m sure.

If good originals keep failing to break through then yes, no matter who is in the C-Suite we are looking at studios leaning more into sequels and remakes/reboots across the board.

 

[Casper Gutman]

So we’re gonna do the word games/semantics with absolutes, eh?

We’re going to reference reality and draw lessons from history rather than just shouting emotionally satisfying nonsense. There’s too much of the latter going on in general.

 

[Casper Gutman]

By the way, a lot of posters reacted with incredulity when I pointed out that a LOT of Marvels recent troubles were due to Feige stepping back. I believe the Wall Street Journal has a big article explaining precisely that.

 

[Disney Irish]

By the way, a lot of posters reacted with incredulity when I pointed out that a LOT of Marvels recent troubles were due to Feige stepping back. I believe the Wall Street Journal has a big article explaining precisely that.

I haven't read the WSJ article, but I think it was fairly well discussed in other threads how Feige was being spread thin and that it affected production and quality of the MCU movies in Phases 4/5. And that in 2023 (I think that was when) he took back the reigns so to speak as they refocused.

I believe Thunderbolts is one of the first ones produced after he took back the reigns, and the higher quality of the movie shows that.

 

[TalkingHead]

Thunderbolts actually opened with $74M domestically which puts it under Ant-Man/Wasp and Shang-Chi and ahead of Eternals for OW domestic tallies