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

[Vegas Disney Fan]

You could get a pretty good reading on the current popularity of each Disney Princess by searching "Disney insert princess name" on Target.com, as Target is the official Disney retailer but also must stock and offer products that the free market actually wants/buys.

That search at Target.com gets you these results today;

Disney Snow White = 207 Products
Disney Belle = 166 Products
Disney Frozen Elsa = 161 Products
Disney Cinderella = 139 Products
Disney Moana = 122 Products
Disney Frozen Anna = 66 Products
Disney Aurora = 62 Products
Disney Tiana = 57 Products
Disney Mulan = 45 Products

Hey, at least Tiana beat Mulan.

Disney Tiana : Target

Shop Target for Disney Tiana you will love at great low prices. Choose from Same Day Delivery, Drive Up or Order Pickup plus free shipping on orders $35+.

www.target.com

I made a post using Amazon’s best seller lists (for dolls) also but then realized some items were drop down lists so I wasn’t positive it was limited to one character.

Of the top 100 dolls on Amazon about 95 are types of Barbie, for Disney it showed #7 as Belle, #14 Rapunzel, #18 Elsa, and #29 Ariel (live action). Not sure how accurate those are though because with the exception of Elsa they all had selection options so they may have been combinations of all princess dolls of that type.

The only thing that was really evident is Barbie is killing it right now.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

You could get a pretty good reading on the current popularity of each Disney Princess by searching "Disney insert princess name" on Target.com, as Target is the official Disney retailer but also must stock and offer products that the free market actually wants/buys.

That search at Target.com gets you these results today;

Disney Snow White = 207 Products
Disney Belle = 166 Products
Disney Frozen Elsa = 161 Products
Disney Cinderella = 139 Products
Disney Moana = 122 Products
Disney Frozen Anna = 66 Products
Disney Aurora = 62 Products
Disney Tiana = 57 Products
Disney Mulan = 45 Products

Hey, at least Tiana beat Mulan.

Disney Tiana : Target

Shop Target for Disney Tiana you will love at great low prices. Choose from Same Day Delivery, Drive Up or Order Pickup plus free shipping on orders $35+.

www.target.com

I don't know how all of this works out in terms of Disney's calculations, though I would just note that Stitch is still killing it using this methodology with 432 Products showing up.

I'm still surprised they've never found a good attraction for that character as every time I'm in the parks he seems a surprisingly close second to Mickey and Minnie in terms of the merchandise people are wearing and carrying around. You'd think with outer space and Hawaii to work with they could have come up with something.

 

[Tha Realest]

I don’t have it… but I was not the one claiming a certain film does not have the merch sales

You asked for a source on sales. I provided one. These are the only observable metrics I could find.

 

[Tha Realest]

In fairness, if you provide information to support a position you’re advancing, people will question its relevance.

What position was I “advancing?” They asked for information on sales. I provided one.

 

[tcool123]

You could get a pretty good reading on the current popularity of each Disney Princess by searching "Disney insert princess name" on Target.com, as Target is the official Disney retailer but also must stock and offer products that the free market actually wants/buys.

That search at Target.com gets you these results today;

Disney Snow White = 207 Products
Disney Belle = 166 Products
Disney Frozen Elsa = 161 Products
Disney Cinderella = 139 Products
Disney Moana = 122 Products
Disney Frozen Anna = 66 Products
Disney Aurora = 62 Products
Disney Tiana = 57 Products
Disney Mulan = 45 Products

Hey, at least Tiana beat Mulan.

Disney Tiana : Target

Shop Target for Disney Tiana you will love at great low prices. Choose from Same Day Delivery, Drive Up or Order Pickup plus free shipping on orders $35+.

www.target.com

For reference - I was curious to check

Disney Ariel = 217 Products, but 259 when film title is searched
Disney Jasmine = 96 Products, but only 95 when when film title is searched
Disney Pocahontas = 28 Products
Disney Rapunzel = 66 Products, but only 24 when film title searched
Disney Merida = 9 Products, up to 10 products when film title searched
Disney Raya = 36 Products, but 86 Products when film title searched


Some other discrepancies and fun facts I found with your data:
Disney Snow White = 207 Products, but goes down to 63 with the film title
Disney Belle = 166 Products, up to 203 with the film title
Disney Frozen Elsa = 161 Products, but down to 75 when only Disney Elsa is searched, and 342 when only Disney frozen is searched
Disney Cinderella = 139 Products
Disney Moana = 122 Products
Disney Frozen Anna = 66 Products, but down to 52 products when only Disney Anna is searched
Disney Aurora = 62 Products, but up to 189 with the film title
Disney Tiana = 57 Products, shoots up to 810 results when the film title is searched instead - likely due to the word "princess"
Disney Mulan = 45 Products

And while not a princess let's throw in Encanto!
Disney Mirabel = 24 products, 437 results with the film title searched instead of Mirabel


So what does this tell us? Nobody cares about Merida nor Brave, but does that surprise anybody? It makes sense why her float got cut from FoF, and she is relegated to a gazebo off the beaten path at MK for Mirabel.

But it also tells us that this method is rather flawed. Princesses that have their name be the same as their film will tend to have higher search results such as Moana and Cinderella as they can be inflated by the film's supporting cast (Maui, Hei Hei, Pua or Fairy Godmother, Lady Tremaine, etc.).

 

[tcool123]

The Stitch character has been a tremendous merch success - the trumpet playing alligator? Not so much.

To be fair Stitch is the main protagonist of his film alongside Lilo. A more fair comparison for Louis would be another side character from other films such as Timon and Pumba from Lion King.

 

[Chi84]

What position was I “advancing?” They asked for information on sales. I provided one.

This one:

PATF’s enormous “merch sales” are one of the great internet myths of all time.

 

[tcool123]

And how do you think trumpet playing alligator merch has compared to them for the past nearly 20 years?

Oh it pales in comparison but my point was it would be logical to compare sidekicks to sidekicks so Louis vs Pascal is another example. My post wasnt to say Louis had strong sales but rather saying Stitch , and other main characters, typically have more merch versus their sidekicks

 

[TP2000]

The Stitch character has been a tremendous merch success - the trumpet playing alligator? Not so much.

On shopdisney.com, a search for...

"Stich" returns 437 products.
"Olaf" returns 37 products
"Pumbaa" returns 12 products.
"Pascal" returns 6 products.
"Pua" returns 4 products.
"Louis" returns 2 products.

 

[Disney Irish]

Thank god he’s FINALLY getting his E ticket attraction to meet the demand!

Correction, Tiana is getting the attraction. Louis just like in the film is relegated to side kick in the attraction.

 

[TP2000]

This is from 2014

And the Most Popular Disney Princess Is...

Surprise! A princess who doesn't end up with a prince at the end

time.com

While that data is from Ebay sellers, you could also just search on Ebay as a buyer for the names of the princesses, like you can with Target.com or shopdisney.com to get a feel for how "hot" a character is.

On Ebay right now, these are the results when you search for the following princess names...

"Disney Cinderella" = 120,000 Results
"Disney Belle" = 110,000 Results
"Disney Elsa" = 63,000 Results
"Disney Snow White" = 51,000 Results
"Disney Anna" = 49,000 Results
"Disney Rapunzel" = 40,000 Results
"Disney Jasmine" = 33,000 Results
"Disney Moana" = 29,000 Results
"Disney Aurora" = 24,000 Results
"Disney Mulan" = 23,000 Results
"Disney Tiana" = 15,000 Results
"Disney Merida" = 7,000 Results

This time, Mulan beat Tiana by a third. But at least Tiana beats Merida?

 

[BuddyThomas]

Which makes sense as I heard they were going to close Pirates for a full Merida retheme next.

I realize that this is just more snark, but obviously, Pirates is here to stay.

 

[BuddyThomas]

Well, since Merida is from Pixar, if Disney is looking for a marketing angle, they could always use:

“Come ride along with Disney Animation’s least favorite princess!!!”

 

[TP2000]

Well, since Merida is from Pixar, if Disney is looking for a marketing angle, they could always use:

“Come ride along with Disney Animation’s least favorite princess!!!”

Honestly, I was just thrilled to find a female lead in a "princess" type role that had lower consumer popularity than Tiana.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You are far from being a troll or a shill.

It reads like a burner account…102% of the time

Way to notice

 

[MisterPenguin]

Honestly, I was just thrilled to find a female lead in a "princess" type role that had lower consumer popularity than Tiana.

Have you met Ruby Gilman?

 

[Phroobar]

While that data is from Ebay sellers, you could also just search on Ebay as a buyer for the names of the princesses, like you can with Target.com or shopdisney.com to get a feel for how "hot" a character is.

On Ebay right now, these are the results when you search for the following princess names...

"Disney Cinderella" = 120,000 Results
"Disney Belle" = 110,000 Results
"Disney Elsa" = 63,000 Results
"Disney Snow White" = 51,000 Results
"Disney Anna" = 49,000 Results
"Disney Rapunzel" = 40,000 Results
"Disney Jasmine" = 33,000 Results
"Disney Moana" = 29,000 Results
"Disney Aurora" = 24,000 Results
"Disney Mulan" = 23,000 Results
"Disney Tiana" = 15,000 Results
"Disney Merida" = 7,000 Results

This time, Mulan beat Tiana by a third. But at least Tiana beats Merida?

There are worst princesses than Merida.

Nala = 11000 results​

Megara = 3000 results​

Maid Marian = 1000 results​

Vanellope von Schweetz = 653 results​

Giselle = 264 results​

Princess Eilonwy =25 results​

Kida Nedakh = 24 results

Princess Atta and Princess Dot = 0 results​

 

[Casper Gutman]

The Crew has decided to attack PatF? Such a surprising and inexplicable choice of targets.

But of course, a film’s initial box office success is ALWAYS directly correlated to its long-term popularity and cultural impact. That’s why It’s a Wonderful Life is completely forgotten today, along with other stinkers like The Thing or The Shawshank Redemption. And man, how about Disney churning out a string of disposable bombs like Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Sleeping Beauty?

Tiresome.

 

[Phroobar]

Good lord, Haunted Mansion’s holds in the foreign markets where it has opened are just horrific.

Mexico, a key Disney family market, already down to just change in three weeks.

View attachment 737667

Looks like those theaters where dead.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

Pixar explains why their movies are "more expensive" on paper than other studios. The main points being that they don't outsource their animation offshore and their budgets include Pixar's overall costs including salary and administration not tied directly to a given movie.

Pixar Chief Explains Their Large Film Budgets - Dark Horizons

Film budgets are a big topic of discussion of late. Around or near $300 million was spent on the most recent “Indiana Jones” and “Mission: Impossible” films, both of which underwhelmed at the box-office compared to past entries. Meanwhile, many of the biggest hits of the year have all been...

www.darkhorizons.com