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

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Change the course toward another walk out? Toward cancelled projects and A-List celebrities and showrunners heading to Netflix? Absolutely.

I’d argue it’s better to let them walk out and make shows for Netflix than to continue to let them make movies that are losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

The threat of a walk out (or quitting) is really only a threat If those employees are good at their job and making the company money.

 

[Farerb]

Employees are replaceable. In addition, I don't think Disney's employees are as united about what sort of content Disney should produce as people here seem to think.

 

[el_super]

I’d argue it’s better to let them walk out and make shows for Netflix than to continue to let them make movies that are losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

I agree. But I think Disney will find a way to tell the stories the creatives want, under the budgets the execs want. They won't let their talent walk out the door.

 

[_caleb]

I’d argue it’s better to let them walk out and make shows for Netflix than to continue to let them make movies that are losing hundreds of millions of dollars.

The threat of a walk out (or quitting) is really only a threat If those employees are good at their job and making the company money.

If you think longer-term and bigger picture– beyond short-term box office misses–Disney is doing what Netflix is doing when they hired Shonda Rhimes away from ABC. Creatives who can tell stories from different perspectives and for different audiences is a longer-term investment for their streaming library.

Creatives being "good at their jobs" depends on what their jobs are. The goal of making money at the box office is one thing, the longer-term goal of connecting with a broader variety of audiences and beefing up their content offerings so DTC subscribers are more likely to find things they like on D+ is a bit of a different strategy. While they're still releasing these films in theaters, box office is not the only goal.

 

[CinematicFusion]

So Bob chose to feed the mob a line? One he knew would feed their supposed narrative?

He should have just apologized for The Last Jedi and ruining Star Wars and everyone would understood.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Isn't that what Strange World was about?

If it was that was in no way clear to me.

 

[el_super]

If it was that was in no way clear to me.

Weird. I thought the whole plot of the movie was about having the courage to change your life, even when you were raised to believe it should be a certain thing. I see a lot of parallels to the struggles of middle America, where manufacturing jobs have left and life is being forced to change, just like losing the free energy pods from Strange World. No?

 

[CinematicFusion]

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is solid on Apple, shame Disney plus struggles to make shows like this but then if they did it would be better then most films they have released in the theater.

Maybe Disney needs to make a choice. Are they a streaming company or a theatrical company?

 

[CinematicFusion]

Weird. I thought the whole plot of the movie was about having the courage to change your life, even when you were raised to believe it should be a certain thing. I see a lot of parallels to the struggles of middle America, where manufacturing jobs have left and life is being forced to change, just like losing the free energy pods from Strange World. No?

Zero people watched Strange World, it was the equivalent on early 2000s films Treasure Planet and Atlantis. No one showed up for those films either.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Weird. I thought the whole plot of the movie was about having the courage to change your life, even when you were raised to believe it should be a certain thing. I see a lot of parallels to the struggles of middle America, where manufacturing jobs have left and life is being forced to change, just like losing the free energy pods from Strange World. No?

I think that’s a bit of an ethereal and abstract connection, and wouldn’t be immediately clear to many people. Just my two cents.

 

[el_super]

Zero people watched Strange World, it was the equivalent on early 2000s films Treasure Planet and Atlantis. No one showed up for those films either.

So you're saying that marketing and messaging is what sunk the movie? Not the quality of it?

 

[TP2000]

On the subject of interpreting box office numbers, the Beyoncé Dolby tickets are $28.00. Regular shows are $22. Mentioning this because Beyoncé is probably going to make more than Wish this weekend, but that won’t be the full story of number of tickets sold.

Good point. And yet Wish will still have the most number of theaters in the country this weekend; 3,900.

I wonder what the struggling movie chains think about having to carry Wish in 3,900 theaters with lots of empty seats, while far more popular movies like Godzilla, Hunger Games, Napoleon, etc. are in far fewer theaters.

That also tells me there's a contractual obligation to carry a certain movie in a certain number of theaters for a set time. And yet Disney's movies keep flopping one after another, so I wonder what the fallout will be on that with theater chains in 2024? Will they be willing to sign up for lots of theaters for the next Disney release?

Theater counts: Wish holds off a cluster of newcomers to remain widest release - The Numbers

www.the-numbers.com

 

[TP2000]

Box Office numbers are out for Thursday, and it shows where the box office will likely end up this weekend with two new films in wide previews yesterday; a new Godzilla movie and a concert movie by Ms. Beyonce'.

Burbank is having yet another brutal box office weekend. Again. And nothing from Burbank has legs.

That combo appears to push Wish down into 5th place by only its second weekend in theaters, even with the highest number of theaters in the country at 3,900. Why so many theaters?

The Marvels and Next Goal Wins continue to slide towards Disney+ for free, with no legs for either film.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Weird. I thought the whole plot of the movie was about having the courage to change your life, even when you were raised to believe it should be a certain thing. I see a lot of parallels to the struggles of middle America, where manufacturing jobs have left and life is being forced to change, just like losing the free energy pods from Strange World. No?

Maybe this is why it failed, it didn’t have a clear message.

I thought it was an environmental movie about saving the planet, with a secondary theme of parents accepting their kids for what they are.

 

[CinematicFusion]

So you're saying that marketing and messaging is what sunk the movie? Not the quality of it?

No.. I think sci fi animation hasn’t done well for Disney. The Black Hole, Tron as other examples. You can add Lightyear to that list

 

[TalkingHead]

Good point. And yet Wish will still have the most number of theaters in the country this weekend; 3,900.

I wonder what the struggling movie chains think about having to carry Wish in 3,900 theaters with lots of empty seats, while far more popular movies like Godzilla, Hunger Games, Napoleon, etc. are in far fewer theaters.

That also tells me there's a contractual obligation to carry a certain movie in a certain number of theaters for a set time. And yet Disney's movies keep flopping one after another, so I wonder what the fallout will be on that with theater chains in 2024? Will they be willing to sign up for lots of theaters for the next Disney release?

Theater counts: Wish holds off a cluster of newcomers to remain widest release - The Numbers

www.the-numbers.com

The obvious Disney solution is to price Marvel movie tickets like they do the parks. $50/person, don’t put them on streaming. Doesn’t matter how good/bad the movies are. The comic fans will show up.

…said partially in jest.

 

[TP2000]

I thought the whole plot of the movie was about having the courage to change your life, even when you were raised to believe it should be a certain thing. I see a lot of parallels to the struggles of middle America, where manufacturing jobs have left and life is being forced to change, just like losing the free energy pods from Strange World.

Well, that sounds rather dreary. But I imagine it was a movie pitch that went over big with the Silver Lake brunch crowd.

No wonder Strange World flopped.

 

[Tha Realest]

I would also like to know what “messaging” people think Iger is talking about. What is the “message” in The Marvels or TLM or Wish or even Haunted Mansion that is supposedly so distracting?

It seems much more likely that his words are not an authentic expression of his thoughts but an attempt to placate the folks attacking Disney. He’s made numerous attempts to try to quiet the controversy recently. They have been rebuffed and will very likely continue to fail because the entire, profitable point of the attacks is to incite rage.

The one firm conclusion to be drawn from Iger’s comments is that he’s sure the controversy is significantly hurting the box office, something several here have disputed.

“He’s not siding with the bad people, he’s just a liar”

 

[Casper Gutman]

Control, no. Over time he may be able to find some middle ground or a common narrative that everyone can support and agree on. Not giving up on representation but having a pragmatic approach - i.e., baby steps might ultimately sell it better or open more hearts in the long run. Empathizing with issues that cause hardships for those who are currently giving Disney a hard time, like poverty and the loss of manufacturing jobs, and maybe giving those some airtime too. That type of thing. I don’t think that will happen overnight though - and I imagine it depends on how well he’s able to connect with Disney creatives.

The people attacking Disney are overwhelmingly not poor or genuinely concerned with poverty. They want to be angry at things because it feels good and powerful people want them to be angry because it is profitable in multiple ways. What we are seeing ARE baby steps in representation.

 

[Casper Gutman]

“He’s not siding with the bad people, he’s just a liar”

Why is this a surprising idea for a CEO trying to control damage?

By the way gang, firing creative people because they refuse to follow the company mandate to “limit diversity” would NOT be avoiding controversy. It would cause a tremendous uproar and alienate a vast number of creative people in Hollywood. It’s also deeply immoral.

Think of what you’re arguing in favor of.