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

[Disney Irish]

Even accounting for outliers like The Marvels and changing movie habits, we know how much No Way Home, GotG 3, Deadpool 3, Black Panther 2 and Doctor Strange 2 did.

I did want to pull this part out and comment on it. Notice what all those films have in common..... They are sequels to already established characters. So the through line here is that general audiences will show up in droves for established characters. And that hardcore fans will show up new character movies which sets up the ground work for future movies.

That is the take away from this. That is the expectation that should be set here in general. Of course you'll have the outliers on either side of the equation, but going back and looking at it that has been for the most part on average the case since 2008.

 

[Disney Irish]

“The math doesn’t look as bad if you take off the top two earning films.”

I just tried that argument unsuccessfully with my property tax assessment. It works as well here as it did there.

Statistics is not taxes, so your argument doesn't work here. You have to account for the outliers when you're talking averages, and when you have two that just completely skew the results you have to remove them otherwise you artificially inflate your results as any good data analyst would know.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

“The math doesn’t look as bad if you take off the top two earning films.”

I just tried that argument unsuccessfully with my property tax assessment. It works as well here as it did there.

Taking out out the two lowest grossing movies (because of impacts to theater operations in 2021) also skews the average

$400 million is the floor. The only two lower than that are both phase 1 movies released 14-17 years ago...unadjusted. Over a billion is the ceiling because sometimes lightning strikes and you reach a wider audience than expected.

You reach a median or average by looking at a collection of data showing a wide range of numbers, not just some of them.

Despite all the excuses, $700 million worldwide is not an impossible figure for a genuine MCU hit. We've had post-Endgame/2020 releases sail past that number several times.

 

[Serpico Jones]

Disney doesn’t make these movies for them to break even.

 

[Disney Irish]

Averaging out all movies of the MCU since 2008 when you include all $1B+ movies and even Thunderbolts as of today and assume it made no more money, the average is $879M. When you take out the $1B+ movies and include Thunderbolts as of today again assuming it made no more money, the average is $589M. Even if you took out Thunderbolts because we assume it'll make more money, the average is $606M. So the range to me is $500-$650M on average is good for an MCU movie, and as @Animaniac93-98 rightfully said $400M should be the floor.

The $1B+ movies are the outlier in the MCU, they aren't the average, they are the exception to the rule not the rule itself. They should not be the expectation, which is the whole point of this discussion.

 

[Serpico Jones]

Averaging out all movies of the MCU since 2008 when you include all $1B+ movies and even Thunderbolts as of today and assume it made no more money, the average is $879M. When you take out the $1B+ movies and include Thunderbolts as of today again assuming it made no more money, the average is $589M. Even if you took out Thunderbolts because we assume it'll make more money, the average is $606M. So the range to me is $500-$650M on average is good for an MCU movie, and as @Animaniac93-98 rightfully said $400M should be the floor.

The $1B+ movies are the outlier in the MCU, they aren't the average, they are the exception to the rule not the rule itself. They should not be the expectation, which is the whole point of this discussion.

Then you can’t keep spending $200m a movie. The budgets need to come down considerably.

Theatrical exhibition is barely a business anymore.

 

[Disney Irish]

Disney doesn’t make these movies for them to break even.

"We don't make movies to make money, we make money to make movies." - Walt Disney

So tell me again how Disney, a company that in a large majority of its history lost more money on movies then it made, doesn't make movies for them to break even. People have forgotten the decades upon decades of the history of this company and only remember the 2010s and beyond.

 

[Disney Irish]

Then you can’t keep spending $200m a movie. The budgets need to come down considerably.

Theatrical exhibition is barely a business anymore.

And neither point do I disagree with.

 

[Serpico Jones]

Disney haven’t been able to make content that really grabs the attention of Gen Z. Netflix has been able to do it with their content (Stranger Things, One Piece, Wednesday) while Disney has struggled in this regard. If you’re going to spend $200m on a movie or series you have to have Gen Z accounted for.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Disney haven’t been able to make content that really grabs the attention of Gen Z. Netflix has been able to do it with their content (Stranger Things, One Piece, Wednesday) while Disney has struggled in this regard. If you’re going to spend $200m on a movie or series you have to have Gen Z accounted for.

Partially agree. I’m going to assume Gen Z saw movies like The Little Mermaid live action and Inside Out 2 as much as any other generation. But they didn’t go absolutely viral with that demographic (although Descendants was huge with their younger siblings, Gen Alpha.)

 

[Disney Irish]

Disney haven’t been able to make content that really grabs the attention of Gen Z. Netflix has been able to do it with their content (Stranger Things, One Piece, Wednesday) while Disney has struggled in this regard. If you’re going to spend $200m on a movie or series you have to have Gen Z accounted for.

Again a point I don't necessarily disagree with. Gen Z in general I think is the lost generation to many companies as their trends tend to change very quickly.

I think movies like Inside Out and Inside Out 2 did appeal to Gen Z, which is why they both did so well. Same with Moana and Moana 2. So I don't think Disney is completely gone to Gen Z, I just think most saw traditional Disney as for "babies" and Pixar more to their liking which is why Pixar has had such a following in the 2010s to today.

 

[Agent H]

Disney haven’t been able to make content that really grabs the attention of Gen Z. Netflix has been able to do it with their content (Stranger Things, One Piece, Wednesday) while Disney has struggled in this regard. If you’re going to spend $200m on a movie or series you have to have Gen Z accounted for.

Speaking as a younger member of gen z I can tell you that we do have Disney things We are nostalgic for. Most of my peers aren’t Disney animation fans but they do like Pixar. Marvel especially the spider man movies are very popular. certain Disney channel shows are very popular too like phineas and ferb. gravity falls. Kim possible. Star vs the forces of evil. Edit. Stitch is big too and I personally have a soft spot for the clone wars and it’s spin offs.

 

[Serpico Jones]

Again a point I don't necessarily disagree with. Gen Z in general I think is the lost generation to many companies as their trends tend to change very quickly.

I think movies like Inside Out and Inside Out 2 did appeal to Gen Z, which is why they both did so well. Same with Moana and Moana 2. So I don't think Disney is completely gone to Gen Z, I just think most saw traditional Disney as for "babies" and Pixar more to their liking which is why Pixar has had such a following in the 2010s to today.

The question is what do Star Wars and Marvel bring to the table? SW holds no interest for Gen Z and Marvel is a major question mark.

 

[Disney Irish]

The question is what do Star Wars and Marvel bring to the table? SW holds no interest for Gen Z and Marvel is a major question mark.

Now I can't speak for Gen Z as I'm Gen X, and based on the age listed on your profile you're a Millennial. But having been around forums like this and others interacting with Gen Z for a long time I can say that they actually do care about both, albeit probably not as a whole but specific content within each franchise.

With SW I've found that many Gen Z care about the Clone Wars series and the Filoniverse characters in particular. Which is why I think you've seen LFL focus so much on them and given Filoni almost unlimited free rein to tell whatever stories he wants. Some good some bad, but overall ok for the most part.

With Marvel, I think most care about Spider-Man and the Avengers. Which is why those do so well. And why you see a focus back on those characters and trying to bring back together an Avengers level team.

Overall I think both will be ok in the long term, even if in the short term both have stumbled. But such is life, not everything is going to hit with every generation.

 

[celluloid]

Speaking as a younger member of gen z I can tell you that we do have Disney things We are nostalgic for. Most of my peers aren’t Disney animation fans but they do like Pixar. Marvel especially the spider man movies are very popular. certain Disney channel shows are very popular too like phineas and ferb. gravity falls. Kim possible. Star vs the forces of evil.

The Pixar films the Gen Z have helped make succesful were really ones that were from Gen Y that had sequels so it was largely supplimented with audiences already loving the familiar and going to go see the sequels.
Nothing of original theatrical release of Pixar has shown a strong since Gen Z has been around.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Speaking as a younger member of gen z I can tell you that we do have Disney things We are nostalgic for. Most of my peers aren’t Disney animation fans but they do like Pixar. Marvel especially the spider man movies are very popular. certain Disney channel shows are very popular too like phineas and ferb. gravity falls. Kim possible. Star vs the forces of evil.

This lines up with what @BrianLo said about Gen Z growing up during Disney animation's slump in the 2000s

But also makes sense that the same age group would like peak Pixar and Disney Channel at the height of the same time.

 

[brideck]

Snow White notably added 1,020 theaters for this weekend. But judging by the fact that increased theater count only produced a per theater box office haul of $52 per theater, the results weren't great. 1,330 theaters nationwide netted Burbank an extra $70,000 (there isn't a zero missing from that, Kurt double checked) for yesterday.

I'll continue my effort to be remembered by you forever. When you enter the 2nd-run period of a release (aka cheaper tickets -- $7 vs $12 near me), you're probably not going to magically increase your per theater haul. Disney's just looking to squeeze as much blood out of the stone as possible, and they're getting more than they would have under the previous trajectory. This will still be gone (more or less) in another week or two.

 

[Disney Irish]

I'll continue my effort to be remembered by you forever. When you enter the 2nd-run period of a release (aka cheaper tickets -- $7 vs $12 near me), you're probably not going to magically increase your per theater haul. Disney's just looking to squeeze as much blood out of the stone as possible, and they're getting more than they would have under the previous trajectory. This will still be gone (more or less) in another week or two.

Especially since it goes digital on the 13th.

 

[Tha Realest]

Sinners is the most impressive hit of the year. Coogler stands alongside Nolan as the most impressive of this vanguard of newer filmmakers.

If only Disney had a project produced by its creator in the can, ready to drop in a little more than a month. Would be great to promote such a project, especially if it ties in to the future of the MCU.

I mean, surely they wouldn’t be giving such a project the Echo treatment.

 

[TP2000]

Hi gang, I hope all our Moms here still have a Mimosa that's being topped off in early afternoon today. And if you are here online instead of topping off your Mom's Mimosa, shame on you! Here's the first pass at weekend box office.

Thunderbolts fell by 55% in its second weekend, not disastrous but also not great. Shall we call it "middling"?

The Amateur continued its late season slide with a $1.1 Million domestic haul, and it's going to lose at least $25 Million for Disney (AKA the money it would cost to mount, open and operate for two years a major new musical show in DCA's abandoned 2,000 seat Hyperion Theater. But who in Burbank cares about park capacity and guest experience?).

Also this weekend, Rachel Zegler tried to squeeze blood from a stone with 1,330 theaters for Snow White. Did it work?

The Numbers - Weekend Box Office Chart for May 9, 2025

Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for the weekend of May 9, 2025

thenumbers.com