I read it, which is why I said "especially with almost 2 months left to go in its box office run.". And then proceeded to give further context about how its basically expected for Avatar 3 to make less than Avatar 2. As in this isn't surprising and pretty much a normal occurrence, if you actually follow the movie industry.
To be fair to Frankenstein… it was not playing in any major chains….you had to get lucky that there was an independent or maybe a smaller regional theater playing the film… There was only 1 theater playing it near me…. It was one art house theater playing the film for just 1 weekend about a 45 minute drive for us…. We looked for it… if the timing was right…. We would have seen it
Because some thought it should have been a theatrical offering to begin with rather than just this one-off experience for the final episode. That doesn't mean it was a unified thought amongst ALL ST viewers, nor Netflix themselves.
Except you're doing the exact same thing saying that FOMO will cause more people to go and sell out theaters for every movie in a shorter window. When we've seen that just isn't the case in real world practice.
That is YOU, just because you think that doesn't mean that is the entire movie going public.
Many people think different, its why ticket sales are down year over year since the pandemic and were down again in 2025.
People aren't stupid, they'll know that if Netflix owns WB that its Netflix and they'll be able to see it fairly quickly after release on the streaming platform. Just like the many discussions about the D+ effect with Pixar or Marvel or Star Wars and now 20th Century, because people know that Disney owns those brands.
Movies are already front-loaded these days anyways, so that isn't saying much, its about the rest of the theatrical window that matters, if its cut short than that is less money made not more like you're trying to claim.
I can't speak about your market, but it was playing in 3 theaters near me.
Hiya, gang! Everyone recovered? I still have a hankering for Aunt Ingrid's glogg, but otherwise I'm back at it!
Here's the 2025 Burbank Box Office Recap, using the Metricsystem where we take the production budget and multiply it by 2.5 to find the break even dollar figure, then subtract the global box office tally and divide that by two to achieve the profit or loss for Burbank's coterie of studios.
Top line info for 2025 is that The Walt Disney Company had a combined profit of $327 Million (and still rising from Zootopia 2) for its movies released in 2025.
The glaring thing about '25 here is that just two movies (Lilo & Stitch and Zootopia 2) with relatively modest budgets raked in huge profits that help paper over the more than $600 Million lost from a half dozen bombs. And Rachel Zegler's Snow White goes down in '25 history as a textbook case of how not to remake a beloved classic, and then how not to publicize it on powerful Social Media to potential global audiences who then mostly stayed away from Beijing to Baltimore. Oof!
Captain America, Brave New World: $180 Production, $414 Box Office = $19 Million Loss
Rachel Zegler's Snow White: $270 Production, $206 Box Office = $235 Million Loss (Oof!)
The Amateur: $60 Production, $96 Box Office = $27 Million Loss
Thunderbolts: $180 Production, $382 Box Office = $34 Million Loss
Lilo & Stitch: $100 Production, $1,038 Box Office = $367 Million Profit (!!!)
Elio: $150 Production, $152 Box Office = $112 Million Loss
The Fantastic Four, First Steps: $200 Production, $507 Box Office = $4 Million Profit
Freakier Friday: $42 Production, $153 Box Office = $24 Million Profit
The Roses: $20 Production, $52 Box Office = $1 Million Profit
Tron Ares: $180 Production, $142 Box Office = $154 Million Loss
Zootopia 2: $180 Production, $1594 Box Office = $572 Million Profit (And Counting!!!)
Ella McCay: $35 Production, $5 Box Office = $41 Million Loss
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The Numbers - Where Data and the Movie Business Meet
The Numbers provides detailed movie financial analysis, including box office, DVD and Blu-ray sales reports, and release schedules.www.the-numbers.com
BTW, if you're such a big proponent of theatrical, because it a superior experience, you'd think you'd be a big advocate for a longer theatrical window, not a shorter one.
All and all, a few movies aside, I think Disney is overall pleased with the year. Could it have been better, absolutely, but it could have been a lot worse too. So I don't think anyone is getting fired over what happened in 2025.Removing the small stuff, it’s an interesting year.
Three bombs, three blowouts (throwing avatar in there) and three pseudo break evens.
Not splitting hairs on the Marvel films meeting that, but I needed a third B.
The problem is they have adapted, and as they have adapted to this new paradigm they've seen their profits continue to be sliced and diced to the point where several large chains have been on the verge of bankruptcy multiple times, and many of the smaller chains have closed. I mean why are consumers changing their habits, its not for no reason. You have posters here complaining about how ticket and concession prices are getting too high as the reason why they don't go back to the theaters. Theater owners have to make up for the loss of revenue some how, and there is your cause and effect, its a cycle. You think ticket and concession prices are going to go down if this merger causes the theatrical window to shrink even more? And what do you think will happen with attendance if ticket and concessions continue to go up? You really think that'll cause people to flock back to theaters or more likely to stay home? Why do you think that the number of overall tickets sold continues to go down even if overall revenue stays flat? I'm not sure why some of you don't understand that. There is a cascading effect here that once things start to tip that snowballs and its impossible to stop and becomes an avalanche.
And its just as likely for them to remain just as they have in the longer term with regards to their core business, ie a streaming giant who has disdain for the theatrical model. You trust that they will change, cool, I don't and neither do theater owners. You're entitled to your opinion just as I am and just as theater owners are. And maybe I and the theater owners end up being wrong on this and Netflix will now embrace a 30-45 or even longer theatrical window, or we'll be right and it'll end up causing even more harm to the theaters because they will continue with their stance for a shorter theatrical window. I'm going to continue to side with the theater owners on this one.
Well as a person who said they value the theatrical experience over the at-home one I'd just think you would agree that a longer theatrical window would be better overall. I don't think your hypothesis plays out the way you think, again we just haven't seen that in real world practice in a larger way with all movies, one movie that was already a streaming hit and one episode of an already popular streaming show isn't proof that is going to happen with every other WB movie. I already said that FOMO happens with event films and those two were examples of that, but there haven't really been any other Netflix event films. So unless Netflix is going to make every WB movie after the acquisition an event film I don't see how its not going to have a negative effect on overall ticket sales if they move to a shorter theatrical window.
Was not just AMC….my local chain is Marcus….it is not AMC or Regal…. But it is the 4th largest theater chain in the US… It’s Headquarters is Milwaukee which is my market… they were not playing Frankenstein either… plus there were other studios that have had their movies in theaters for 17 days… Universal in particular has done that many times
Because its not in their interest from a monetary standpoint to give movies with short windows any of their screens.
You're right it likely won't change the inevitable trend, but it can accelerate it and that is the fear that theater owners have. So rather than 10-20 years of theaters left in existence it could be 5 years. I don't know about you but that scares me, because if theaters go then whats next? What other forms of entertainment will drop in favor of at-home entertainment.
And I've said multiple times event situations still work, both those examples are events. That is not the majority of films that Netflix releases though, nor is it the majority of films that even WB releases. We have a handful of event films a year, typically less than 5, that isn't enough for theaters to survive. Its the rest of the slate that makes up the bulk of screenings during the year. And I know someone said that studios can just slot in more movies, well again that means studios would have to produce more, which is more expense, and more that has to be recouped, easier said than done.
You're right anything is possible, but I'm advocating for a continued theatrical experience, and the Netflix model whether they publicly say otherwise doesn't promote that. So as I said before in order for Netflix to convince me that they have theatrical experience in mind they have to show me, and so far they haven't.