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

[BrianLo]

If you fully read the article you are referencing, it spells out that the $593 million was not in actual spending, but in the "media value" of their cross promotions with other companies. For example, the put Minions stickers on Chiquita bananas. Lots of value for a fairly minimal cost. It's a pretty genius actually.

I know, the Minions byline was spun sensationally. They aren’t spending 10x more than other studios. It was and is not remotely a criticism. Merely a note that Illumination films marketing budgets are significantly larger than the production budgets implies in a traditional estimation sense. What they don’t spend on production they make up for in marketing.

It generally works for them very well.

 

[celluloid]

I am shocked at how well Anyone But You has performed. A Rated R rom com without high profile cast names(then again, I am old) and marketing on it was not wide as far as the media I saw it on (then again, I am old)

Another moderate to great win for Sony with Ghostbusters on the way in March, which moved up a week for the release date.

 

[TP2000]

Strange World made a whopping $230K total over its last three weeks in theaters, so likewise there's going to be little to talk about for Wish.

Happy 100th Anniversary to the Walt Disney Company! You guys did it! Wish slayed!

 

[TP2000]

Yeah… I saw that… It’s like he has no concept of limited screens or just finding any excuse to trash anything related to Disney and like you said has not seen either film and he won’t

It's actually just tracking the box office for Disney movies. The box office numbers tell the stories themselves.

 

[brideck]

It's currently playing in 42 theaters in the United States. Forty Two. Who even knows this is a thing?

Anyone who pays attention to indie films or awards contenders, as well as potentially "Sherlock" and "Normal People" fan girls and boys. I've been seeing its trailer for over 2 months now.

As of tonight, it's already basically at $1 million without having anything like a wide release yet. That's way ahead of the game for a movie of this profile, and way ahead of my previous Aftersun comp.

 

[crispy]

I am shocked at how well Anyone But You has performed. A Rated R rom com without high profile cast names(then again, I am old) and marketing on it was not wide as far as the media I saw it on (then again, I am old)

Another moderate to great win for Sony with Ghostbusters on the way in March, which moved up a week for the release date.

TikTok has been doing work for Anyone But You.

 

[Ghost93]

I am shocked at how well Anyone But You has performed. A Rated R rom com without high profile cast names(then again, I am old) and marketing on it was not wide as far as the media I saw it on (then again, I am old)

Another moderate to great win for Sony with Ghostbusters on the way in March, which moved up a week for the release date.

Sydney Sweeny is fairly well known to young Millennials and Gen Z due to her performances on Euphoria and the White Lotus. But this was her first major break into stardom among general audiences.

 

[TalkingHead]

All of Us Strangers is playing in Orlando this weekend (starting today).

Sydney Sweeney’s line readings are awful in the Anyone trailer. Is she any better on her series, or is her popularity totally a product of social media exposure? Seems like the latter…

 

[Ghost93]

All of Us Strangers is playing in Orlando this weekend (starting today).

Sydney Sweeney’s line readings are awful in the Anyone trailer. Is she any better on her series, or is her popularity totally a product of social media exposure? Seems like the latter…

Having seen Anyone But You, I think she has chemistry with Glenn Powell, but that this brand of comedy isn't her strong suit. She's much better as a dramatic actress than a comedic one and has rightfully earned Emmy nominations for her TV work.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Despite the low number overall, Anyone clearly has some interest.

Very happy with how Wonka has been doing, but any real competition will knock it down from the number one spot it has mostly held from the beginning. It should hit 500m worldwide before long. (I want sequels!)

 

[BuddyThomas]

Sydney Sweeny is fairly well known to young Millennials and Gen Z due to her performances on Euphoria and the White Lotus. But this was her first major break into stardom among general audiences.


All of Us Strangers, while well-reviewed, is primarily only known about cinephiles, the gays and critics. I really want to see it, but its not playing in a theater near me. It's in a very limited release and is mainly preoccupied with trying to get some award nominations. I suspect if it gets Oscar nominations, it will go into wide release. If it doesn't get the nominations, it will probably be sent to streaming where I imagine it will do well with its target audience. Regardless, it's more of an arthouse film than a movie designed to make a billion dollars.

I'd be surprised if it got any Oscars love, because there is so much competition, but I was surprised to see that it already has this many awards and nominations and it is 95% positive, both audience and critics on Rotten Tomatoes:

All of Us Strangers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I was going to check out the Mean Girls musical tonight but it got pretty average reviews, so I think I'll see All of Us Strangers instead.

 

[Communicora]

I'd be surprised if it got any Oscars love, because there is so much competition, but I was surprised to see that it already has this many awards and nominations and it is 95% positive, both audience and critics on Rotten Tomatoes:

All of Us Strangers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I was going to check out the Mean Girls musical tonight but it got pretty average reviews, so I think I'll see All of Us Strangers instead.

You are probably right. It was snubbed at the SAG awards, but it is on the longlist for a lot of BAFTA categories.

 

[DKampy]

I'd be surprised if it got any Oscars love, because there is so much competition, but I was surprised to see that it already has this many awards and nominations and it is 95% positive, both audience and critics on Rotten Tomatoes:

All of Us Strangers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I was going to check out the Mean Girls musical tonight but it got pretty average reviews, so I think I'll see All of Us Strangers instead.

I have a feeling All of Us Strangers may have snuck up on people this awards season…I hear it’s worthy of a best picture nomination… but I think by the time people were made aware of it… it may be too late… and as you say there is so much competition I Don’t know if there is room

American Fiction is my priority this weekend

 

[celluloid]

All of Us Strangers is playing in Orlando this weekend (starting today).

Sydney Sweeney’s line readings are awful in the Anyone trailer. Is she any better on her series, or is her popularity totally a product of social media exposure? Seems like the latter…

This was my thought too. As from what I saw in the trailer. Clearly, this film was marketed to the right people becuase they are showing up for it.

 

[TP2000]

Back OT to box office, if you're doing animation you don't have to worry about ultra restrictive casting choices. You can get whomever you want to voice whatever character you've got, HR be damned! Going in to the MLK Jr. weekend (the kids get another day off school already?!?) here's how the 3 animated family films from the holidays are doing...

 

[TP2000]

Anyone who pays attention to indie films or awards contenders, as well as potentially "Sherlock" and "Normal People" fan girls and boys. I've been seeing its trailer for over 2 months now.

As of tonight, it's already basically at $1 million without having anything like a wide release yet. That's way ahead of the game for a movie of this profile, and way ahead of my previous Aftersun comp.

Any idea what it's production budget was? I can't find any financial info on All Of Us Strangers. At least not yet.

 

[brideck]

Any idea what it's production budget was? I can't find any financial info on All Of Us Strangers. At least not yet.

It's up for Best Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards, but not up for the John Cassavetes Award (for small-budget films), so definitely more than a million. The director's last movie (through A24) is listed at $8 million. A24 and Searchlight typically have pretty similar budgets, so maybe something in that neighborhood, but some amount of that surely would've been funded by grants for movies like this.

 

[brideck]

They should be applauded for their casting rather than questioned.

And what's more, they found someone that fit the bill. Pretty incredible. I haven't watched "Hawkeye" or "Echo" and generally don't like MCU stuff that much, so I really couldn't comment on how good the casting agents did or on the quality of the acting.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Back OT to box office, if you're doing animation you don't have to worry about ultra restrictive casting choices. You can get whomever you want to voice whatever character you've got, HR be damned! Going in to the MLK Jr. weekend (the kids get another day off school already?!?) here's how the 3 animated family films from the holidays are doing...

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Wish has become a nightmare.

Another loss for TWDC.

How many back to back losses can the company survive?

 

[TP2000]

Wish has become a nightmare.

Another loss for TWDC.

How many back to back losses can the company survive?

Well, they just finished a year with a dozen big losses. And we were supposed to have another big box office test from Rachel Zeigler in March, but they wisely sent Snow White back to the drawing boards for major rewrites and changes, so that won't be coming out until 2025.

Then we've got a winter of all these little funky artsy movies from Searchlight that are designed to lose money, because it's assumed the flagship corporate studios will bankroll and subsidize them with all the money they got from their summer and Christmas tentpoles (except the opposite happened at Disney's box office in 2023). So we'll need to get through that artsy niche stuff this winter.

There's nothing coming out from any of Disney's flagship studios until Memorial Day weekend when 20th Century Pictures releases Planet Of The Apes 9: Weekend At Charlton's. And then Inside Out 2 is in June.

It's going to be a long, cold winter in Burbank. Thank God we've got Poor Things and All Of Us Strangers to track!