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

Disney Irish

Premium Member
If one company is hurting more than the others, and others are succeeding very well or better than ever...

Than it is in fact happening consistently to a vacuum, to one company.


You can't also say it is not changing for the better when it has grown in rebound every year since 2020. Slow and steady, and other studios have adapted. They will for sure have to continue to adapt as an industry. If Theaters were at 4 billion you would have a valid concern that nothing is being done.

But its taking time to come back. It is not dying if it is growing.

You want further hard evident truth, if Disney's films would have done what they would have intended, than the Box office would have been back to 11 billion or more.

Quit spitting out box office is dying forever nonsense.
Um, any growth when compared to 2020 will of course be seen as a positive. That is why you use pre-pandemic levels as a real comparison. And on a dollar per dollar basis 2018 was the highest grossing year domestically, $4.6B higher than now when inflation adjusted. Check back on that in 2024, 2025, or even 2026, you may find that slow and steady rebound stalled.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
There is no other answer Various studios need to be better more frequently and Disney needs to do way better to get people back plus the time that box office sales are returning to about what they were previously. Ebb and flow always naturally there and industries will have to adapt. The big difference is Disney's oversaturated meal tickets and lack of good effort are running out as their brand is damaged. You could argue WB is starting to find this out as well in terms of DC. But even they produced winners and know how to Diversify. It truly is just one company struggling like this.
Yep, Disney sucks. Now what you want to talk about?
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Seriously. I think they know more about their business than random internet posters. They’ll figure it out. Whatever they do, someone will be unhappy.
No, no, we can't talk about that. As that would indicate that Disney is able to course correct with current management. That just won't do. As we must all hate current management, it was even said here in this thread that all fans must hate management, its like a moral imperative or something.
 

_caleb

Well-Known Member
I asked for four or five and you just rewrote the same things kind of like a teenager trying to hit a page count on an essay.
I'm not sure why you're being rude to me. You asked for examples to support my claim. Even though I imagine your request was intended as a challenge, I provided several. Many of the worst offenders have been (rightly) deleted for bringing up social/political issues against forum rules. Sorry you found it too much to read, but that list is what I had in mind when I posted this:
I’ve been asking everyone here who says Disney’s recent movies aren’t good to explain why, and most responses have little to do with the films themselves.

I try to engage in good faith here. Everything I post is my supposedly educated and moderately-informed opinion, but I claim no inside information. I enjoy exploring why things are the way they are, and how different subsets of the fandom perceive things. I've been around long enough to observe patterns and trends in fan sentiment, and in my opinion, many of the reasons given for Disney's box office failures discussed here have little to do with the content or quality of the films themselves.
 

Chi84

Premium Member
No, no, we can't talk about that. As that would indicate that Disney is able to course correct with current management. That just won't do. As we must all hate current management, it was even said here in this thread that all fans must hate management, its like a moral imperative or something.
Yeah for some odd reason I didn’t see any of that nonsense 😂
 

celluloid

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure why you're being rude to me. You asked for examples to support my claim. Even though I imagine your request was intended as a challenge, I provided several. Many of the worst offenders have been (rightly) deleted for bringing up social/political issues against forum rules. Sorry you found it too much to read, but that list is what I had in mind when I posted this:


I try to engage in good faith here. Everything I post is my supposedly educated and moderately-informed opinion, but I claim no inside information. I enjoy exploring why things are the way they are, and how different subsets of the fandom perceive things. I've been around long enough to observe patterns and trends in fan sentiment, and in my opinion, many of the reasons given for Disney's box office failures discussed here have little to do with the content or quality of the films themselves.
They don't have to. This is a box office thread. It is not a movie review thread. Those are ancillary convos.

You pat yourself for some good faith and ask why I am being rude. Your post I quoted started with "You could just read the thread." You have had to delete things that were rude in the past. I don't think your good faith is as good as you think it is.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Look back at the @EPCOT-O.G. post on your false premise. Start there.
First, that is a snippet taken of out context, as its talking about tickets sold not box office grosses. The entire article hasn't been provided so it can be viewed in full context.

Second, all one as to do is look at the charts.

1701111197393.png



As of today, global box office is off ~$20.5B from 2019. Heck its even off from 2022. You could have 10 Disney films doing $1B and that still wouldn't make up the difference between now and 2019. So tell me again how we're rebounding to pre-pandemic levels.
 
Last edited:

ParentsOf4

Well-Known Member
We should have this discussion when Disney puts out a critically acclaimed movie with lackluster box office performance.

2 things can be true at once. The industry can be changing. And Disney could be failing to put out good movies.
There’s another factor to consider: movie budgets.

A big budget movie such as 1956’s The Ten Commandments cost $13 million, about $150 million adjusted for inflation.

Looking at the most expensive movies ever made adjusted for inflation, nearly all of them have been released in the last 20 years.


Not only do film studios produce films that are more expensive, they also produce more of them.

Companies like Disney have forgotten how to make “small” films. When most films you produce come in with $200 million budgets, you need them to be home runs in order to turn a profit.

You produce a $50 million film and it has a $50 million opening weekend, you’re off to a great start. You produce a $200 million film and it has a $50 million opening weekend, you’re in trouble.
 

celluloid

Well-Known Member
First, that is a snippet taken of out context, as its talking about tickets sold not box office grosses. The entire article hasn't been provided so it can be viewed in full context.

Second, all one as to do is look at the charts.

View attachment 756329


As of today, global box office is off ~$20.5B from 2019. So tell me again how we're rebounding to pre-pandemic levels.

Never stated it was back to same level. It is growing towards it. You may have missed this, but studios of anything supernatural and politically questionable are banned in China for years now post pandemic and lauded with those troubles. China and others have had shutdowns a since. Many movies, particularly of Disney are brand damaged in overseas markets as well. We don't have to like all the reasons, but those are the facts.

Mainly, what it tells you is Hubris like Iger's back the wrong horses.
 

LSLS

Well-Known Member
Here's the interesting thing on budget. I quick checked 2019 vs 2023 for Disney (SO, open to corrections if I messed something up, like I said, I went quick with it). I believe there were 14 movies released this year so far to theaters, and I found the budgets for 12 of them. Those averaged a budget of $180.4 million. In 2019? The average was $180.4 million. SO, the top 12 movies both years cost the EXACT same amount to make. NOW, 2019 is skewed drastically. You had two MONSTER movies that were culminations of their two largest franchises that they spent a ton to make. But, you could say that about Indy as well. Also, this year, there were 7 movies that cost $200 million or more to make. 2019, that number is just 4. But it's interesting to me that the budgets may not be quite as out of hand as we believe they are. And I think it points to the idea there is a lot more in play than just "These movies are costing too much to make."

I think theater costs have risen too much (remember, I personally said no to Captain Marvel opening week cause I wasn't willing to pay the price. Well, Thanksgiving weekend, I went from like $15 a ticket to $8, and popcorn was discounted as well). I also think the way Disney retrained viewers to wait 2-3 months to watch it on D+ may be the LARGEST impact. I think if you are going to need to buy it for $30 anyways to see it within the next year, people will be much more likely to hit the theaters for it.
 

celluloid

Well-Known Member
There’s another factor to consider: movie budgets.

A big budget movie such as 1956’s The Ten Commandments cost $13 million, about $150 million adjusted for inflation.

Looking at the most expensive movies ever made adjusted for inflation, nearly all of them have been released in the last 20 years.


Not only do film studios produce films that are more expensive, they also produce more of them.

Companies like Disney have forgotten how to make “small” films. When most films you produce come in with $200 million budgets, you need them to be home runs in order to turn a profit.

You produce a $50 million film and it has a $50 million opening weekend, you’re off to a great start. You produce a $200 million film and it has a $50 million opening weekend, you’re in trouble.
This is one thing Eisner understood and did well with Touchstone and the like. After Splash they took that and ran with a lot of wins. Three men and a baby era to the 90s with Touchstone and other labels. Not acquiring of other studios needed. Quality films for their scale.
I said this in the early days of this thread and others have too. Some that used to argue against it have even jumped on board.
Disney is the only studio who has done as much tentpole budgets at the oversaturation level.
 

TalkingHead

Well-Known Member
Box office numbers are in a grade inflation era. If the theatrical chains discontinued their subscription programs, those box office numbers would dive dramatically.

If you pay $25/mo for AMC, you’re likely to see things you wouldn’t be willing to pay for out of pocket. That leads to “ticket sales” that the customer isn’t actually forking over money for. That’s not acknowledged anywhere in the weekly box office numbers.

My guess is if subscription programs become unsustainable, the whole business is going to fly off the cliff.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Never stated it was back to same level. It is growing towards it. You may have missed this, but studios of anything supernatural and politically questionable are banned in China for years now post pandemic and lauded with those troubles. China and others have had shutdowns a since. Many movies, particularly of Disney are brand damaged in overseas markets as well. We don't have to like all the reasons, but those are the facts.

Mainly, what it tells you is Hubris like Iger's back the wrong horses.
2023 may not even hit 2022 levels globally. That is decline, not growth. Also ~$20B that is a huge shortfall to make up, not likely to get back to those levels this decade. Even if all Disney films this year had hit $1B that wouldn't have made up for the difference. But yes they sucked this year, no doubt about that.

Also I'm aware of global distribution issues in China. But they are part of the global market however, you even stated just a couple pages ago of them expanding their cinema count.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom