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

[Jedijax719]

Umm, with linear tv dying one has to assume that at some point in the fairly near future Disney moves all their Disney Channel production and content to D+. So I'm sorry but its inevitable for D+ to become an extension, or really a replacement, for Disney Channel.

What I meant is that I don't want D+ to simply be a showcase of only the type of shows shown on Disney Channel, catering only to the audience that watches it (despite just SW and MCU being the only exceptions).

 

[Disney Irish]

What I meant is that I don't want D+ to simply be a showcase of only the type of shows shown on Disney Channel, catering only to the audience that watches it (despite just SW and MCU being the only exceptions).

It won't be, you missed the part I added -

"The difference is it won't be its entire focus, but merely another production pipeline going into D+."

 

[TP2000]

Buckle up, gang, the box office data is out for the weekend of August 4th thru 6th.

I think I had said earlier Haunted Mansion looked like it was going to lose at least $100 Million for Disney, on top of the $500+ Million they'd already lost on their other tentpoles this year.

But after this, its second, weekend, it looks like Haunted Mansion will now lose at least $150 Million.

The Numbers - Weekend Box Office Chart for August 2, 2024

Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for the weekend of August 2, 2024

www.the-numbers.com

 

[TP2000]

You think he is just pretending for street creds?

I'm just sad my mom isn't still alive to see people accuse me of secretly being straight. That would've made her so happy.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Disney is fighting an uphill battle because they’ve conditioned me to expect their new remakes to be Frankensteins that don’t feel enough like the originals to be truly nostalgic but also don’t feel unique enough to feel truly new either. Until they can change that perception there’s no need for me to give them my hard earned money at the theater rather than waiting for D+.

Honestly, they lost me with the Beauty & the Beast remake.

I came out of that just thinking about how much talent was involved in the original, with the pacing, character design, and incredible musical talent from songwriters to singers and musicians all being just perfect. It got me to listen to the soundtrack of the original again, but after that whenever I've seen clips of things like Will Smith singing Prince Ali I go back to the experience of B&tB and wonder why I would want to watch a worse version of a film I like. I was initially a little interested in TLM, but the reviews were middling enough to ultimately keep me from making the effort to get to the cinema.

Maybe I am being unfair, though... at least in some cases! Also can't deny that other people seem to like them.

 

[celluloid]

I'm just sad my mom isn't still alive to see people accuse me of secretly being straight. That would've made her so happy.

Come on now, remember. You are a monolith!

 

[TP2000]

You're like a person who tells a bad joke and when it gets no laugh, you tell it again and again thinking maybe people didn't hear you the first time.

If it annoys you to see regularly updated box office data in this thread titled "Disney At The Box Office", then what would you like us to talk about in this thread?

Pick a topic other than box office data and I'll try to stick with it. Maybe chilled dinner recipes for hot weather? Late summer watering tips for outdoor succulents? Interior design trends to make your home look casually elegant? Possibilities are endless, and could be fun.

 

[celluloid]

That's a good question. People seem to love her as Harley Quinn. But they didn't show up for the suicide squad or birds of prey. But the original suicide squad did fairly well, so who knows. A D+ series could work, I'm just not sure Disney has the chops to pull it off. I just think they are still trying to find their way in the TV series space. The vast majority of their series have been mediocre to not great. And even the better ones have some problems.

I don't think Disney has the budget to pull it off.

With each Season of a Marvel show costing 140-200 million dollars for eight episodes and cancleled subscriptions. I can't imagine what a pirate show would do.

 

[TP2000]

I hate this argument. The job of a studio is make movies that appeal to audiences. People shouldn't be forced to watch a movie they have no desire to see in order have an opinion about it.

Agreed, which is why you'll find my artistic commentary on movies I have not seen is relegated to the trailers or the marketing that I have seen. But if I haven't seen a movie, how on earth would I be able to offer artistic commentary on the actual movie or character developments in said movie? Answer: it would be impossible to do so, which is why I haven't done that.

But box office data are hard facts we can see and discuss very easily.

Fundamentally, audiences are not connecting with the movies Disney is putting out. That is the fault of Disney, not the consumer.

That's exactly right. I would love to hear what some folks think Disney should do with their mega-budget tentpoles that perform modestly at best to disastrously at worst.

Should Disney change to suit the audience? Or should Disney double down and keep doing what they've been doing and hope the audience finally relents and buys movie tickets just because Disney demands that they do?

 

[TP2000]

Why aren't you including the "Proud Family" bit as one of your examples?

Probably because that one was so over the line cringey that even very liberal folks realized it was too extreme for a Disney children's cartoon.

 

[Disney Irish]

I don't think Disney has the budget to pull it off.

With each Season of a Marvel show costing 140-200 million dollars for eight episodes and cancleled subscriptions. I can't imagine what a pirate show would do.

I'm sorry but you cannot prove that any of the Marvel shows are reasons for cancelled subs to D+, other than maybe yourself.

There is no data that shows that any of the Marvel content is causing a drop in subs especially in any large enough numbers to be noticeable.

 

[celluloid]

I'm sorry but you cannot prove that any of the Marvel shows are reasons for cancelled subs to D+, other than maybe yourself.

There is no data that shows that any of the Marvel content is causing a drop in subs especially in any large enough numbers to be noticeable.

Never said they were the reason. I said I don't see Disney spending the money when budgets are getting tighter, and subscriptions were canceled while other big shows have been produced.

I don't have to prove that they were the reason the subscriptions were canceled, but what it does prove is it did not keep those people who did.

Breathe baby breathe.

 

[TP2000]

When any of the viewing public want nostalgia, it is very simple to view the original production for a fix. The remakes are not even a thought.

Exactly.

It's like the difference between watching 1958's Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russel, or watching 1974's Mame with Lucille Ball.

The first one is a beloved classic that I own the BluRay of to watch every 12 to 18 months or so, the second one is a forgettable remake that no one cares about any more.

 

[TP2000]

However, now that’s it out and I’ve seen from multiple sources how it has an overt feminist/anti-male messaging and pretty stops to have people monologue about that stuff, my interest has dramatically fallen and I’ll probably never watch it. Not really interested in being lectured to even if it is done well.

I think you should see it. The anti-male stuff is so over the top hilarious that it's a goofy villain type of thing instead of any real social commentary. The men in the movie are made to look like cartoon stereotypes of men circa 1972, and thus are instantly recognizable as just comedy tropes instead of real characters in the 2020's.

It all comes across rather well, because the movie is so obviously poking fun at itself and its subject material.

I found the pro-woman monologue by the mom in the movie to be only a tad cliche', but mostly full of real emotion. And anyone who had a mom in their life who tried to do it all will probably tear up during that monologue. I teared up a bit at that scene, while my sister next to me needed a full supply of Kleenex.

Anyone who was born after 1950 can relate to Barbie. It helps that it's also just a fun, summer, toe-tapping movie with some good belly laughs and plenty of eye candy for everyone. The perfect summer movie for happy Americans. I think you'll find stuff to like about it.

 

[celluloid]

I think you should see it. The anti-male stuff is so over the top hilarious that it's a goofy villain type of thing instead of any real social commentary. The men in the movie are made to look like cartoon stereotypes of men circa 1972, and thus are instantly recognizable as just comedy tropes instead of real characters in the 2020's.

It all comes across rather well, because the movie is so obviously poking fun at itself and its subject material.

I found the pro-woman monologue by the mom in the movie to be only a tad cliche', but mostly full of real emotion. And anyone who had a mom in their life who tried to do it all will probably tear up during that monologue. I teared up a bit at that scene, while my sister next to me needed a full supply of Kleenex.

Anyone who was born after 1950 can relate to Barbie. It helps that it's also just a fun, summer, toe-tapping movie with some good belly laughs and plenty of eye candy for everyone. The perfect summer movie for happy Americans. I think you'll find stuff to like about it.

What was fun to me about Barbie too is it among the girls rule attitude (which anyone who went to see a movie based on a girl's toy line that could not have fun with that is sour and silly) it also had a bit of what guys are allowed to be as well.
With cheesy and fun, even if not all catchy to me songs it was also a vibrant musical. It felt like a modern Earth Girls are Easy with Julie Brown but more general audience.
I was no more offended by the pro female voice here than I was when I was young and watched Spice World.

If anything. Will Farrell was the great actual taunt at executive stereotypes of big business, something he has a typecast for.

 

[LittleBuford]

Agreed, which is why you'll find my artistic commentary on movies I have not seen is relegated to the trailers or the marketing that I have seen. But if I haven't seen a movie, how on earth would I be able to offer artistic commentary on the actual movie or character developments in said movie? Answer: it would be impossible to do so, which is why I haven't done that.

Again, this just isn’t true:

And the character development of Strange World seems designed by a Diversity Committee made up of humorless HR ladies who put their pronouns in their email signatures. It's a family unit that instantly reads as fake and forced.

And then when I learned that the family had a 3-legged dog I just said... Ohhhyougottabekiddingme!?!

About a week ago via this thread, I found myself looking at the Strange World characters and I just kept thinking "Why are their noses shaped like a giant boiled potato? Why are they so ugly?"

 

[Disney Irish]

Never said they were the reason. I said I don't see Disney spending the money when budgets are getting tighter, and subscriptions were canceled while other big shows have been produced.

I don't have to prove that they were the reason the subscriptions were canceled, but what it does prove is it did not keep those people who did.

Breathe baby breathe.

Loss of subs happens for many reasons, trying to prove that the large budget shows didn't keep them is ridiculous, its a negative that can't be proven. Its a false narrative that you're trying to paint by spinning plates that don't equate out here. It would be like saying, Disney didn't produce enough Mickey Mouse shorts to keep the subs who cancelled. Its something that is not provable because there is no data to prove it.

Its your opinion, that is all. And that is fine, but don't state it like its facts that you gleaned out of the 10K.

 

[TP2000]

Disney is catering to a very small audience and finding out there is no money to be made there. They are loosing their traditional audience that does have money for one that doesn't.

Yup. It's not as bad as Bud Light, but it's similar. Bud Light's executive leader went on record with a friendly interviewer saying that as the brand's leader she didn't like her core customers and found them to be unstylish and worthy of scorn, and she wanted to replace them with new core customers by changing the marketing and the type of new customer she was after. A few days later, Dylan showed up.

The problem was that there weren't nearly enough of that "better" customers waiting to buy her product, and they never showed up. And she had insulted and annoyed her core customers so much they stopped buying her product immediately.

The result is now the biggest brand implosion in American business history. Disney isn't at that same level of disaster yet, but it's on the path to that end result. Will Disney course correct in time? Or will Disney just keep doubling down and hope that customers finally give up and buy Disney's products again en masse like they used to?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Other than Elemental, which was unfairly swept up in an anti-Disney + post-Chapek destruction of the Disney box office movement. There's a reason that movie clung to the box office.

Plus Little Mermaid (Domestically) and Guardians 3. HM is also probably being pilloried by the direct to stream expectation and extremely poor release window, which was clearly made because it's meant to be a Halloween D+ release.

Mermaid wasn’t popular…didn’t make anywhere close to what Disney targeted…but keep trying

And none of these movies have a thing to do with chapek. He was the parks hatchet man when they all were greenlit

The goes back to “if you want to destroy my SWEATER”…plain and simple

 

[celluloid]

Loss of subs happens for many reasons, trying to prove that the large budget shows didn't keep them is ridiculous, its a negative that can't be proven. Its a false narrative that you're trying to paint by spinning plates that don't equate out here. It would be like saying, Disney didn't produce enough Mickey Mouse shorts to keep the subs who cancelled. Its something that is not provable because there is no data to prove it.

Its your opinion, that is all. And that is fine, but don't state it like its facts that you gleaned out of the 10K.

None of what is in this quote from you is my opinion. You are fabricating this. Not sure what goal you have.

Again, never said it was the cause.

All I said is I don't see them throwing a big budget at a large-scale Pirates of the Caribbean series. Not a good climate for it while budgets for shows are larger than ever and subscribers are leaving.