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

[Disney Irish]

Need to watch it again… hard to believe Disney made it.
“Night Crossing” is a 1982 film based on the true story of two ladies of the night from East Germany who, in a quest for cocaine, defied the odds by building a hot air balloon to create the first mile high club. Set during the Cold War era, and filled with drug fueled orgies, this dramatic film showcases the challenges and dangers hookers faced under the surveillance of the East German government. The calls girls determination and resourcefulness are central themes, as they secretly construct the balloon despite continuing to work in raging orgies. The movie highlights the stark realities of life in East Germany and the lengths to which people went to seek the incredible strip clubs in West Germany.
Or maybe that wasn’t it… it’s been awhile since I watched it.

So yeah I'm gonna say maybe you haven't seen either film in awhile. Your description involves things that just didn't happen in the movie. Maybe you're confusing it with another movie.

Night Crossing is a PG-Rated movie that is fairly tame with only some mild violence and mild profanity. Not really all that shocking for a Disney movie even for the early 80s.

Color of Night is an R-Rated movie that was originally NC-17 due to very explicit sex scenes between the leads, lots of violence, and lots of profanity. Would still be considered shocking even if released today by Disney.

There is no comparison between Night Crossing and Color of Night.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

It started in December to get subs use to idea, ie make sure any parents setup their parental controls. It goes live in March for all Bundle subs.

Been watching D+/Hulu tonight and the recommended and what’s new sections kind of throw a wrench in keeping the two separated.

Both sections (among others) now show a combination of what I’d call traditional D+ content (Disney, Pixar, SW, and Marvel) but also a ton of TV shows and more mainstream movies from Hulu I wouldn’t expect to see on D+.

It’s not recommending anything rated R or anything like that but it doesn’t feel as much like a Disney app anymore, now it feels much more like Netflix. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but Disney+ may not be the best name now that most of the content isn’t actually Disney (beyond Disney being the parent company).

 

[Disney Irish]

Been watching D+/Hulu tonight and the recommended and what’s new sections kind of throw a wrench in keeping the two separated.

Both sections (among others) now show a combination of what I’d call traditional D+ content (Disney, Pixar, SW, and Marvel) but also a ton of TV shows and more mainstream movies from Hulu I wouldn’t expect to see on D+.

It’s not recommending anything rated R or anything like that but it doesn’t feel as much like a Disney app anymore, now it feels much more like Netflix. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but Disney+ may not be the best name now that most of the content isn’t actually Disney (beyond Disney being the parent company).

Appreciate your opinion, maybe it'll just take some getting used to for you.

What you're seeing has been available outside the US for 3 years, and appears to be successful with no complaints. I've been using it that way for almost the same amount of time via a VPN connection.

The name Disney+ to me always meant "Disney" plus other things not core "Disney". It never meant only "Disney" to me. So personally I think the name fits the service.

And honestly the whole point is to compete against Netflix anyways. So having a single service where all content can be viewed is the goal, no matter what its name.

 

[brideck]

Finally saw Poor Things tonight and man, what a movie. Just a delight to watch from start to finish, despite the uneasy premise.

For the upcoming weekend, it's not losing many (if any) screens around us, although I see some theaters cutting it back to share a screen with something else for now. There are something like 10 new movies in my market this weekend, which has caused Soul to be preemptively cut back a little -- it's now only slated to be at 3 of our 6 AMCs, etc. whereas I definitely saw more showtimes than that before. Perhaps that coupled with the matinee pricing announcement means that presales have not been what theaters hoped they would be. Wish is almost completely gone after tomorrow.

All of Us Strangers also looks to be expanding this weekend, as it's showing up in at least 3 of our local multiplexes. That screen count might prove larger than I was expecting.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Pretty Woman.

You rang?

 

[Tony the Tigger]

If you want to make an argument D+ shouldn’t have been onboarding expensive theatrical films? Ya, that’s very much a discussion we can have.

On one hand it sort of saved Disney’s stock price in the pandemic. While other travel and leisure companies were in the pits, Disney hit an all time high. On the other hand the aftershocks have destroyed urgency to see Pixar films in theaters (you’re welcome @Andrew C). Very evident in Elemental that clearly didn’t suffer the same lack of audience desire that many of their other films did this year.

I think it was one of Chapek’s great follies in hindsight and probably the biggest thing that got him fired.

I think it made perfect sense, it just wasn’t executed perfectly.

If you’ve got the content and an alternate delivery method during and given the restrictions of the early pandemic, use it. Advantage to D+. Especially at the moment they were trying to quickly build a subscriber base.

They just should have made special events out of each one (like how it felt Hamilton was.) But they needed to specifically emphasize at the beginning of the movie: “Disney cares about your family, so under the circumstances, we are releasing this film on D+. We look forward to returning to theater releases as soon as possible.”

And then maybe don’t make it available 24/7. Show it with start times of 3pm, 6pm and 8pm on a Friday and continue doing that.

Or make it a premium purchase via D+ again specifying this is only a temporary alternate method of delivery until we can get back to regular theater releases. That’s probably the better idea.

So you get your extra subscribers when you need them, and they get special new content, but they aren’t trained to think this is how it will always be.

There’s so much talk about imagination, but so little implemented.

 

[DKampy]

Finally saw Poor Things tonight and man, what a movie. Just a delight to watch from start to finish, despite the uneasy premise.

For the upcoming weekend, it's not losing many (if any) screens around us, although I see some theaters cutting it back to share a screen with something else for now. There are something like 10 new movies in my market this weekend, which has caused Soul to be preemptively cut back a little -- it's now only slated to be at 3 of our 6 AMCs, etc. whereas I definitely saw more showtimes than that before. Perhaps that coupled with the matinee pricing announcement means that presales have not been what theaters hoped they would be. Wish is almost completely gone after tomorrow.

All of Us Strangers also looks to be expanding this weekend, as it's showing up in at least 3 of our local multiplexes. That screen count might prove larger than I was expecting.

That’s great to hear… I was hoping Poor Things screen count would not decrease too much… I noticed the local theater I usually use did not have Poor Things listed earlier in favor of all the new releases plus Soul and the expanded releases of American Fiction and All of us Stranger’s… that’s a lot of films to find room for…I will have to take look to see if that’s changed.., perhaps the Golden Globes win changed things…I feel like there is a lot of momentum right now… My prediction for the Academy Awards right now is Oppenheimer for the win, but if there is an upset the award will go to Poor Things

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Thought there were some interesting points here:

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-mov...ErhHfuv5Rggxp8Hd3nCCFPjT9XqL62Dj-GNfz4JrGKQMI

Hmm don’t know why the link is dead. Here’s the headline.

 

[Phroobar]

Micechat didn't like it.

Marvel's Echo Ventures Beyond the MCU - Does It Work?

Without rehashing the entire laundry list of stumbles, it’s fair to say that 2023 was not a good year for Marvel Studios. One of the most reliable cash cows in the Disney family yielded some

www.micechat.com

 

[Tha Realest]

Micechat didn't like it.

Marvel's Echo Ventures Beyond the MCU - Does It Work?

Without rehashing the entire laundry list of stumbles, it’s fair to say that 2023 was not a good year for Marvel Studios. One of the most reliable cash cows in the Disney family yielded some

www.micechat.com

The entire season (series?) dropped yesterday and nary a mention on its own thread. I’m also not seeing anywhere near the traffic one usually does immediately when a Star Wars or MCU series premieres.

 

[MagicMouseFan]

Thought there were some interesting points here:

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-mov...ErhHfuv5Rggxp8Hd3nCCFPjT9XqL62Dj-GNfz4JrGKQMI

Hmm don’t know why the link is dead. Here’s the headline.


View attachment 762415

Getting average ratings so far, not heard much buzz on it.
Maybe it will pick up steam later.

 

[SpectreJordan]

As someone who liked Poor Things, I think the movie is pretty niche in appeal. I am glad I saw it, but there's only a handful of people I would comfortably recommend it to.

I really enjoyed that movie but yeah it's for a very niche audience. I'd say it's a "weirdo movie", which will turn lots of people off. But it's great that movies like that are being made especially when they're still funded by big studios.

 

[erasure fan1]

The entire season (series?) dropped yesterday and nary a mention on its own thread. I’m also not seeing anywhere near the traffic one usually does immediately when a Star Wars or MCU series premieres.

It makes some sense in my opinion. If the greater MCU isn't busting the doors down, it's going to make it tougher for these very niche characters to get a foothold. The Hawkeye series didn't have huge viewership numbers that I could see. So really how many people are going to jump right in on a show staring a secondary character from a show with low viewership? I'll get to it eventually, but it's not at the top of my priority list right now.

 

[SpectreJordan]

The Echo character isn't even particularly in the comics either, she's just sort of there. The Guardians at least had a cult favorite comic run from 2008-2010 before their movie dropped.

They have to stop doing these movies/shows based on characters that aren't even popular with hardcore comic fans. The Guardians, Moon Knight & Ms Marvel were all fan favorites. The Eternals, Echo & Iron Heart? Not so much.

The hardcore comic fans are the ones who start drumming up hype early on & then that reaches more casual fans.

 

[erasure fan1]

They have to stop doing these movies/shows based on characters that aren't even popular with hardcore comic fans. The Guardians, Moon Knight & Ms Marvel were all fan favorites. The Eternals, Echo & Iron Heart? Not so much.

It's not that they should stop using these relatively unknown characters. That can actually be a good thing as you can gain a bit of freedom with them that established characters don't really have. Where they go wrong in my opinion is how they introduce them. Echo had a good introduction in Hawkeye. But not good enough to helm a show as the title character. Let some of these characters show up as a supporting role in a few different films and develop them. Make people love them like Falcon or Wanda. Don't just throw them into the deap end and then wonder why it struggles.

 

[SpectreJordan]

It's not that they should stop using these relatively unknown characters. That can actually be a good thing as you can gain a bit of freedom with them that established characters don't really have. Where they go wrong in my opinion is how they introduce them. Echo had a good introduction in Hawkeye. But not good enough to helm a show as the title character. Let some of these characters show up as a supporting role in a few different films and develop them. Make people love them like Falcon or Wanda. Don't just throw them into the deap end and then wonder why it struggles.

That works too. You'd be able to build them a fanbase first.

 

[erasure fan1]

That works too. You'd be able to build them a fanbase first.

Exactly. The average viewer didn't really know Black Widow when she showed up in the mcu. But in the end she was beloved. It's why I think they made such a big mistake leapfrogging her to get the captain marvel film out first.

 

[Tha Realest]

The Echo character isn't even particularly in the comics either, she's just sort of there. The Guardians at least had a cult favorite comic run from 2008-2010 before their movie dropped.

They have to stop doing these movies/shows based on characters that aren't even popular with hardcore comic fans. The Guardians, Moon Knight & Ms Marvel were all fan favorites. The Eternals, Echo & Iron Heart? Not so much.

The hardcore comic fans are the ones who start drumming up hype early on & then that reaches more casual fans.

Regardless of the character’s popularity, that was clearly acknowledged since the marketing basically portrayed this series as the MCU’s introduction of the Netflix Daredevil/Kingpin universe. There seems to be a pattern here borrowed from wrestling where you take a more popular character and use them to push a lesser known or unpopular character. It’s been happening quite a bit lately in a lot of Disney productions, but with pretty mixed results.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Regardless of the character’s popularity, that was clearly acknowledged since the marketing basically portrayed this series as the MCU’s introduction of the Netflix Daredevil/Kingpin universe. There seems to be a pattern here borrowed from wrestling where you take a more popular character and use them to push a lesser known or unpopular character. It’s been happening quite a bit lately in a lot of Disney productions, but with pretty mixed results.

Borrowed from wrestling??? I think “borrowed from comics” is a lot more relevant.

 

[_caleb]

It's not that they should stop using these relatively unknown characters. That can actually be a good thing as you can gain a bit of freedom with them that established characters don't really have. Where they go wrong in my opinion is how they introduce them. Echo had a good introduction in Hawkeye. But not good enough to helm a show as the title character. Let some of these characters show up as a supporting role in a few different films and develop them. Make people love them like Falcon or Wanda. Don't just throw them into the deap end and then wonder why it struggles.

Because Echo is the first released under the Marvel Spotlight banner, it's intended to be treated as a standalone story. So previous appearances of the character (in the Hawkeye series) are incidental to the new show.

Basically, they're leveraging a lesser character to spin off as a "new" character in her own standalone series.

Had they taken more time to develop Echo in a variety of appearances before spinning off, they'd be making each of those previous appearances the sort of "homework" watching that keeps people from jumping into an interconnected series.