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

[Ghost93]

While I was mixed on the Creator, I do wish it was doing better because I appreciate that the movie felt like it came from one director's unique artistic vision rather than a factory-made corporate product. Not everything about the movie worked, but you can tell the film was made with genuine care.

 

[TP2000]

Global* box office numbers are now in for this past weekend for A Haunting In Venice. It's not good news.

At this rate, Venice will likely top out a few weeks from now at about $110 Million globally. A final global box office tally of $110 Million would make A Haunting In Venice a roughly $40 Million loss for Disney. I can't imagine Disney would try another Poirot film after the last two losses totaling over $100 Million, can you?

Venice: $60 Production, $30 Marketing, $19 Domestic Take, $23 Overseas Take, $42 Global B.O. Take = $48 Million Loss

Global* box office, except for perennial reporting laggards Romania and Slovakia. I blame the Warsaw Pact.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Global* box office numbers are now in for this past weekend for A Haunting In Venice. It's not good news.

At this rate, Venice will likely top out a few weeks from now at about $110 Million globally. A final global box office tally of $110 Million would make A Haunting In Venice a roughly $40 Million loss for Disney. I can't imagine Disney would try another Poirot film after the last two losses totaling over $100 Million, can you?

Venice: $60 Production, $30 Marketing, $19 Domestic Take, $23 Overseas Take, $42 Global B.O. Take = $48 Million Loss

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Global* box office, except for perennial reporting laggards Romania and Slovakia. I blame the Warsaw Pact.

But how do you KNOW?!?


…it will make money on D+

 

[TalkingHead]

Luckily for the studio, that wasn't a plot point at all in the movie.

You must have had trouble parsing the emotional storyline. Sad.

Neglected to mention three people got up and walked out of the screening I attended, so the B+ Cinemascore is probably a lucky break. It could’ve been worse.

 

[KeithVH]

I must be stupid - I really liked Haunting. Maybe other factors rather than "it's a bad movie"?

 

[TP2000]

I must be stupid - I really liked Haunting. Maybe other factors rather than "it's a bad movie"?

Did you ever watch the Poirot TV series of the early to mid 90's that PBS showed in this country? I loved that show, and that version of Mr. Poirot.

If you are familiar with that old Poirot TV series, would a fan of that show like this latest Venice movie?

I wasn't impressed at all by Death On The Nile last year, by the way. It was oddly trampy and trashy in spots, and wildly historically inaccurate, which just seemed to annoy me and take me out of the story too much to enjoy it.

 

[Ghost93]

I must be stupid - I really liked Haunting. Maybe other factors rather than "it's a bad movie"?

I think it did poorly due to the mixed reception of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.

I never saw those movies (due to bad word of mouth) and didn't realize A Haunting in Venice was a Poroit film until very late in the marketing campaign. I'm glad I saw it, it's a good movie. But maybe I would have avoided it had I seen the first two films.

 

[BuddyThomas]

I must be stupid - I really liked Haunting. Maybe other factors rather than "it's a bad movie"?

I thought this was very good as well.

 

[BuddyThomas]

On the other hand (and since we seem to be discussing all sorts of movies on this thread), I went to see Saw X tonight. Normally, I would never go see a tenth sequel to something like Saw, but for some reason, it got almost 90% good reviews. I love horror movies, but I walked out of this thing after the second kill. It is just purely disgusting. There was that moment where they were putting out all the torture movies in the 90's (all the Hostels, Saws, etc), but the last few years have been kind of a horror renaissance, with Pearl, X, Barbarian, The Menu, Black Phone, Nope, Bones and All, Smile, etc, very amazing and not full of the kind of torture "p.o.r.n." that was done in the 90's. Sorry to see that they reverted to this, and it was number one during the weekend. Well, this weekend comes the Exorcist sequel. No reviews out yet. Ellen Burstyn is in it, and she is said to choose her projects very carefully. Over two hours long. I guess we'll see how it goes.

 

[KeithVH]

Did you ever watch the Poirot TV series of the early to mid 90's that PBS showed in this country? I loved that show, and that version of Mr. Poirot.

If you are familiar with that old Poirot TV series, would a fan of that show like this latest Venice movie?

I wasn't impressed at all by Death On The Nile last year, by the way. It was oddly trampy and trashy in spots, and wildly historically inaccurate, which just seemed to annoy me and take me out of the story too much to enjoy it.

That was a great PBS show, one of those that make you want to send them at least a few bucks. But your question is a good one. I'm not sure anymore. With entertainment today and the way people now behave in general, not sure they would.

I would say Nile is the weakest of the three. There are so many great ideas out there like Christie's work - but if they can't turn them into GOOD movies, why bother?

 

[TP2000]

On the other hand (and since we seem to be discussing all sorts of movies on this thread), I went to see Saw X tonight...

I believe the general thought when @Disney Analyst started this thread was to discuss the box office performance of Disney movies; Pixar, Lucas, WDAS, Marvel, 20th Century, etc. But then, when speaking of box office performance data, there's bound to be a few side discussions of other films that have a Disney analog within the same release window, like Strange World vs. Super Mario Brothers, or Ant-Man vs. Shazam, etc.

Or the occasional reference to a culture-impactful film like Barbie or Top Gun: Maverick, the type of blockbuster that sets records and defines a moment in time or era, but is notably not from Disney.

Otherwise, perhaps it's time to create a separate thread where folks can discuss random movies that aren't released by Disney and/or don't have even the tiniest Disney-related connection? Stuff like "Saw X" (whatever that may be), or the latest Universal movie where aging middle age actors race Mustangs and Challengers around the streets of LA as if they were still 24, etc., etc.

 

[Ghost93]

On the other hand (and since we seem to be discussing all sorts of movies on this thread), I went to see Saw X tonight. Normally, I would never go see a tenth sequel to something like Saw, but for some reason, it got almost 90% good reviews. I love horror movies, but I walked out of this thing after the second kill. It is just purely disgusting. There was that moment where they were putting out all the torture movies in the 90's (all the Hostels, Saws, etc), but the last few years have been kind of a horror renaissance, with Pearl, X, Barbarian, The Menu, Black Phone, Nope, Bones and All, Smile, etc, very amazing and not full of the kind of torture "p.o.r.n." that was done in the 90's. Sorry to see that they reverted to this, and it was number one during the weekend. Well, this weekend comes the Exorcist sequel. No reviews out yet. Ellen Burstyn is in it, and she is said to choose her projects very carefully. Over two hours long. I guess we'll see how it goes.

I saw Saw X last night (I had only seen the first one previously and avoided 2-9). I liked it well enough. But I also had my hand over my eyes during all of the torture scenes, so I never actually watched the graphic parts of the film.

I do agree that I prefer horror movies like Pearl and Nope and Hereditary over gore/torture-type films.

I thought this year's scariest movie was an experimental film called Skinamarink. I'd hesitate to recommend it as it's a very polarizing movie, with people either finding it terrifying or thinking it's extremely boring.

 

[DKampy]

On the other hand (and since we seem to be discussing all sorts of movies on this thread), I went to see Saw X tonight. Normally, I would never go see a tenth sequel to something like Saw, but for some reason, it got almost 90% good reviews. I love horror movies, but I walked out of this thing after the second kill. It is just purely disgusting. There was that moment where they were putting out all the torture movies in the 90's (all the Hostels, Saws, etc), but the last few years have been kind of a horror renaissance, with Pearl, X, Barbarian, The Menu, Black Phone, Nope, Bones and All, Smile, etc, very amazing and not full of the kind of torture "p.o.r.n." that was done in the 90's. Sorry to see that they reverted to this, and it was number one during the weekend. Well, this weekend comes the Exorcist sequel. No reviews out yet. Ellen Burstyn is in it, and she is said to choose her projects very carefully. Over two hours long. I guess we'll see how it goes.

I am glad it sounds as if I did not miss out on anything… I am someone who still pays attention to reviews and normally a film with as high a tomato meter as Saw X would get me into the theater… since I will watch any genre if the film is good… but I am so over torture and Saw specifically… especially when Horror has been so good lately with original creative stories… Saw seemed more of the same to me

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

There have been a few posts about other movies that are spoiler-ish.

People should take discussions of other movies elsewhere or at least use spoiler tags when commenting on specific plot points.

 

[DKampy]

or Ant-Man vs. Shazam, etc.

I don’t recall anyone comparing Ant-Man to Shazam because that would go against the narrative set in this thread that Disney is doing worse than any other studio

 

[TP2000]

I don’t recall anyone comparing Ant-Man to Shazam because that would go against the narrative set in this thread that Disney is doing worse than any other studio

Is that the narrative? If so, I'm doing it wrong. I don't remember offering box office data for other studios in their entirety (with the exception of occasional compare/contrast data on individual films aimed at the same demographic audience).

I mean, I can do that for folks if they're interested in how Paramount or Warner Brothers is doing. I've got the time.

But really this thread is focused on Disney's box office results. For the record, the last film any studio at the Walt Disney Company released to earn a profit at the box office was Guardians 3. Everything else this Disney has released this year has lost money at the global box office.

There's no "narrative" there in that data, just simple facts.

 

[DKampy]

Is that the narrative? If so, I'm doing it wrong. I don't remember offering box office data for other studios in their entirety (with the exception of occasional compare/contrast data on individual films aimed at the same demographic audience).

I mean, I can do that for folks if they're interested in how Paramount or Warner Brothers is doing. I've got the time.

But really this thread is focused on Disney's box office results. For the record, the last film any studio at the Walt Disney Company released to earn a profit at the box office was Guardians 3. Everything else this Disney has released this year has lost money at the global box office.

There's no "narrative" there in that data, just simple facts.

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never said anyone is pointing out the entirety of any studios… people seem to cherry pick movies from other studios to point out disappointing Disney Box Office… which was sort of my point…which is why I never saw anyone compare Shazam to Antman…because even though Antman’s numbers were disappointing… Shazam numbers was even Worse

 

[TP2000]

never said anyone is pointing out the entirety of any studios… people seem to cherry pick movies from other studios to point out disappointing Disney Box Office… which was sort of my point…which is why I never saw anyone compare Shazam to Antman…because even though Antman’s numbers were disappointing… Shazam numbers was even Worse

Yes. I just threw Shazam and Ant-Man out there as casual one-offs, because I vaguely have the idea that both were money losing propositions.

I suppose, if I were to go back to that specific 1:00am post of mine while sipping the last of the evening's Pinot Noir, I should have typed "Ant-Man vs. Spiderman" or something.

But the fact remains, this is a thread about Disney box office data. I've found it very interesting to observe that data and see what it means for Disney's various flagship studios. Disney has only had one (1) film make any money at the box office so far this year, even though all their films are lavished with giant budgets and a well-oiled global publicity machine. That's not a sustainable business model for Disney.

 

[TP2000]

Taking @DKampy's suggestion, I tallied the 2023 box office results for some of Disney's major competitors.

This isn't comprehensive of all studios by any means. I'm happy to summarize other studios if anyone has a suggestion. On the numbers below, I didn't count movies where a studio was "distribution only" and it was made by some other studio (that's confusing, isn't it?). These are purely the movies these studio companies produced themselves.

Current box office tally from most profitable to least profitable in 2023 is:

Universal = $509 Million Profit (from 9 movies so far)
Warner Brothers = $196 Million Profit (from 6 movies so far)
Paramount = $308 Million Loss (from 6 movies so far)
Walt Disney Co. = $757 Million Loss (from 10 movies so far)

Universal Studios 2023 Box Office = $509 Million Profit
Megan +$59, Cabin -$13, Cocaine Bear -$10, Super Mario +$530, Renfield -$107, Fast X -$133, Ruby Gilman -$83, Oppenheimer +$317, Strays -$51

Warner Brothers 2023 = $196 Million Profit
Barbie +$492, Magic Mike, -$40, The Flash -$165, Meg 2 -$8, Blue Beetle -$116, Evil Dead +$33

Paramount 2023 Box Office = $308 Million Loss
80 for Brady -$28, Scream VI +$35, D&D -$120, Transformers +$24, M:Impossible -$201, Teenage Turtles -$18

Walt Disney Company 2023 Box Office = $757 Million Loss

Ant-Man -$71, Chevalier -$66, Guardians 3 +$48, Mermaid -$105, Boogeyman -$14, Elemental -$63, Indy 5 -$259, Theater Camp -$9, Haunted Mansion -$178, Haunting In Venice -$40 (optimistic estimate for Venice by 10/31)

The Creator is not counted here as it just opened. Next up for Disney in '23, Wish and The Bikeriders and The Marvels!

 

[LittleBuford]

Another way of ranking things:

Distributors Movie Breakdown for 2023

Distributors Movie Breakdown for 2023

www.the-numbers.com