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

[WorldExplorer]

I want content that respects the heart of a franchise and honors the original vision.

I want that classic fairy-tale magic, the romance, the “Someday My Prince Will Come” fantasy where a strong, heroic prince sweeps in.

Where did that disappear to? Where is the strong masculine Prince Charming?

We girls love the strong masculine Prince that saves us. I do, not every story but I wanted him in this one. Why didn’t Disney deliver?

Instead, we get a lecture on leadership and empowerment that felt more like a TED Talk than an escape.

Snow White is a ‘progressive sermon’ that ditched the charm for a soapbox and nobody went.

women (me) can be a badass and romantic— Disney flattened Snow White into a one-note powerhouse.

Cast actors who sell the vision, not their own agendas, and don’t mess with what worked just to push a message.

Give us the magic we’re paying for.. maybe too strong. The magic we hope for, we wish for.

sometimes even the fiercest heroine, scratch that.. sometimes I want to be saved by a prince while I’m engaged in the magic of a movie.. and that’s okay. It’s why we show up.

We girls sometimes want to sing “Someday my Prince will come” in a packed movie theater.

It’s fun. This new Disney film was not fun.

I don’t always want to be a girl boss (except on Tuesday) and I never want to be lectured and Disney has been exceptional at that recently.

I just want a classically handsome, charming dude in a movie. Flynn Rider was fun before he became the blueprint for every danged male deuteragonist Disney makes (in personality, not looks). I don't want more of him, I can find dudes who look and act like him in random modern day places; let me have my escapist fantasy.

Don't even get me started on the prince replacement's generic as heck singing voice or the freakin hoodie or how the actor is not hot enough.

 

[LittleBuford]

I just want a classically handsome, charming dude in a movie.

This doesn’t qualify?!

 

[Agent H]

You mansplaining do me sweeetie? Don’t do that.
Feels like 3 or 4 on this board are besties.
I love that, always protect your girlfriends.

 

[Agent H]

Someone has to stand up for those poor cinema owners forced to work with Big Bad Disney.

And he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down!

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Looking at my local theater I think they’ve already adjusted accordingly… Minecraft has 26 showings tomorrow, a working man has 7, Snow White has 5, the Last Supper part 1 has 4, the Last Supper part 2 has 4, there’s 7 movies I’m not familiar with that all have less than 5 showings, and Cap4 has 1 showing. This is at a 16 theater multiplex.

ETA… looking at showtimes I think Minecraft must have 7 or 8 screens, with the other 11 movies sharing the other 8 or 9, Minecraft has XD and Real3d starting every hour, they’d need 3 or 4 screens to pull that off, then they have regular showings starting approximately every 40 minutes, they’d need 4 regular screens to pull that off.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

This doesn’t qualify?!

Doesn’t do it for me, but that’s not why I’m going to see Snow White, so I’m not complaining.

What matters is that SHE digs him.

 

[Baloo124]

View attachment 852092

I don't believe in mansplaining towards others. I don't do it. Never have, never will. It just wouldn't work.
It's not because I'm on some moral high ground. It's because most people figure out pretty quickly that I have no idea what I'm talking about most of the time.

 

[BrianLo]

Looking at my local theater I think they’ve already adjusted accordingly… Minecraft has 26 showings tomorrow, a working man has 7, Snow White has 5, the Last Supper part 1 has 4, the Last Supper part 2 has 4, there’s 7 movies I’m not familiar with that all have less than 5 showings, and Cap4 has 1 showing. This is at a 16 theater multiplex.

ETA… looking at showtimes I think Minecraft must have 7 or 8 screens, with the other 11 movies sharing the other 8 or 9, Minecraft has XD and Real3d starting every hour, they’d need 3 or 4 screens to pull that off, then they have regular showings starting approximately every 40 minutes, they’d need 4 regular screens to pull that off.

And another quick factor too is all those auditoriums are not equal. I’m sure a couple of those screens are 30-40 people auditoriums 18.

In order for the premise that Minecraft lacked showings without us actually truly knowing how many it had, we can probably look to the general capacity of humming exhibition. That’s like a 500M weekend. This one was 190M, which won’t even be a top five this year.

Minecraft likely benefited from an uncompetitive exhibition lineup, not was harmed by it.

 

[BrianLo]

I saw Snow by the way and thought it wasn’t actually that bad.

I’m not sure if a lot of the original theories on the film hold much water. It didn’t seem overtly hacked and the dwarfs were laced through the film in such a major way that I can’t fathom they weren’t always there.

The movie clearly aimed to be a new musical. Which is weirdly the whole problem with these remakes. If they are literal shot for shots they do really well (Lion King) but then everyone dislikes them after the fact. When they are redone everyone gets their backs up. They essentially have to be entirely redone, drop the musical entirely for the public to tolerate it.

It aimed to be a Greatest Showman meets Tangled. Like 7-8 new songs. I think the songs that were dropped just weren’t easily remastered into more pop-modern tunes.

I actually somewhat adjusted to the dwarfs. Dopey ended up being cute instead of nightmare fuel after a bit of time with the film.

The worst part was Gal Gadot, who had the look and nothing else. She even had two power ballads!

It certainly was a more modern Snow White and felt like the movie they would have made for the first time today. Snow, the prince and some of the dwarfs felt a lot more fleshed out as characters. It was also even more romantic than the original and she hums “someday my prince will come” at least twice to herself in the movie.

 

[LSLS]

This is only true if people were being turned away at the door because literally every screening of Minecraft were sold out, which is... well, it's not the case.

And again... Snow White (at one screen/theater now) isn't really hogging screens compared to its performance. You should really look at movies like Death of a Unicorn or Hell of a Summer if you want to take potshots at movies that unfortunately don't need an entire screen right now. They're at fewer theaters overall, but in the big markets they have just as many screens at those theaters as SW.

For what it's worth, it was absolutely true for us. We do have much smaller theaters (they are all recliner style), but my son was dying to go to Minecraft, and we could not get in on Friday night to any showings (maybe the late showings had room, but not good for a kid). And when I purchased Friday night for Saturday afternoon (actually at a different theater that is not reclining because we were going out of town for the day anyways), there were only 6 seats left at our showing (and I'd be shocked if those weren't gone). You have to remember that a lot of theaters went to the reclining-style theaters that can have a lot less people.

 

[LSLS]

It’s a bomb with an asterisk to me, because most of the bad sentiment had little to do with the actual film, and “worse” films have done better. IOW: it didn’t deserve to be a bomb. It wasn’t given a chance by many.

But it’s a bomb.

My hope is in 10-20 years, the movies bombing or underproducing for those kinds of reasons will find an audience and be appreciated.

Worse films is subjective, and I think you need to factor in when they were released.

I just think the Venn diagram of this movie had it doomed. You need people who are not sick of the remakes, that are Ok with the lead seemingly taking some shots at the original and wading into political commentary, who will ignore the critic reviews, and are so excited they will spend money to see it in the theater as opposed to waiting for D+ in a few months. You also don't have the nostalgia button to push on this remake (come relive the magic of this movie in theaters with your kids like you got to do).

 

[Phroobar]

Doesn’t do it for me, but that’s not why I’m going to see Snow White, so I’m not complaining.

What matters is that SHE digs him.

You haven't seen Snow White yet? Are you waiting for the crowds to die down?

 

[John park hopper]

Anyone seeing Minecraft today? It looks like it will be the biggest box office opening of the year.

Weekend predictions: Minecraft heading to monster opening - The Numbers

A Minecraft Movie will post the best weekend of 2025, easily topping Captain America: Brave New World’s $88.8 million, and looking very likely to

www.the-numbers.com

wife and granddaughters and daughter in-law saw it on Sunday she said the theater was packed and they never laughed so hard. Said it was great movie

 

[celluloid]

My kids liked it, so it did that. I chuckled a few times, but my brain turned off as it was not my kind of film. Honestly, the gags of Jared Hess' direction I feel almost made the real world moments more entertaining than the minecraft world ones. But there were a few good chuckles there. Good timing to be the only worthwhile family release for many families on top of all the Minecraft fanbase.

 

[Disstevefan1]

You haven't seen Snow White yet? Are you waiting for the crowds to die down?

I am waiting for when its "free" on D+

At the rate its going, its going to be sooner rather than later.

 

[Tha Realest]

I am waiting for when its "free" on D+

At the rate its going, its going to be sooner rather than later.

The “no ads” version of D+ costs substantially higher. How much more will they charge for the premium version where you’re not subjected to Snow White (2025)?

 

[Tha Realest]

wife and granddaughters and daughter in-law saw it on Sunday she said the theater was packed and they never laughed so hard. Said it was great movie

I thought this was a “meme movie” that only appealed to disaffected young men that ironically wanted to see a video game they played?

 

[LSLS]

I thought this was a “meme movie” that only appealed to disaffected young men that ironically wanted to see a video game they played?

Yeah, guy at work's daughter INSISTED they had to go opening night, so they had tickets for a while.

My take on it. It was a really dumb movie, but dumb in the best possible way. It was EXACTLY what it should be, and that was silly, ridiculous, and a TON of fun. And I'd say the box office combined with the viewer reviews vs the "Critics" kind of shows that out. If your top priority going to a movie is just to laugh and enjoy the film, this is for you. If your top priority is to analyze the use of a camera angle and single line in the movie, this is not for you.

 

[Agent H]

I thought this was a “meme movie” that only appealed to disaffected young men that ironically wanted to see a video game they played?

I mean it did suck. People were just happy to see characters they liked. That’s all wanted apparently. It’s sad cinema has gotten to this point but here we are.

 

[Disney Irish]

I thought this was a “meme movie” that only appealed to disaffected young men that ironically wanted to see a video game they played?

We'll see what 2nd weekend hold are, if it drops hard like Five Nights at Freddy's (70%+) then its possible it is just a "meme movie". If it has good holds however then it might be something more, ie its the right movie at the right time.