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

[brideck]

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.

How soon we forget The First Omen coming from 20th Century in April. Literally anything could happen with a horror release, so I would never try to guess at the performance of a movie like that.

 

[Disney Irish]

How soon we forget The First Omen coming from 20th Century in April. Literally anything could happen with a horror release, so I would never try to guess at the performance of a movie like that.

And let us not forget that Disney is releasing the pandemic D+ movies of Soul, Luca, and Turning Red, one a month starting this weekend.

Not to mention that at any point Disney can also move up any movie release between now and April if they want.

There isn't any major movie being released to theaters for any studio until March anyways.

 

[Farerb]

Pixar's origin story and early success is really quite impressive. And I would have agreed with you on keeping Pixar in Emeryville in 2015. But now? It's movies are fairly indistinguishable from WDAS, so why the need for two separate lavishly funded studios that both make the same type of movies that both fail to break even at the box office?

Even after making fun of it on this forum for most of the past year, I still sometimes forget that Strange World was not a Pixar movie; it looked like Pixar, acted like Pixar, and was non-musical like Pixar. I have to remind myself it was WDAS.

So why in the 2020's would you need two separate studios 400 miles apart making nearly the same products; far enough away from each other to not share most resources, but close enough to seem wasteful???

TP2000 Plan For Animation Success: Merge Pixar into WDAS, shut down the Emeryville studio and sell the land to the homeless industrial complex for Druggy Tiny Homes, lay off a lot of duplicative staff and administration at both properties, and set the new organization up in the lavish Disney Animation studios complex in Burbank. Princessy, musical, fantasy based animation gets branded "Walt Disney", and contemporary, SciFi and non-musical animation gets branded "Pixar". They'd save a lot of money and future heartache by just getting that over with and merging the two studios.

The shareholders can thank me later.

The merger between Pixar and Disney Animation is imminent:

‘Significant’ Layoffs To Hit Pixar In 2024 – Report

'Significant' Layoffs To Hit Pixar In 2024 - Report

For the second year in a row, Disney-owned Pixar will undergo major layoffs.

www.cartoonbrew.com

 

[LittleBuford]

The merger between Pixar and Disney Animation is imminent:

‘Significant’ Layoffs To Hit Pixar In 2024 – Report

'Significant' Layoffs To Hit Pixar In 2024 - Report

For the second year in a row, Disney-owned Pixar will undergo major layoffs.

www.cartoonbrew.com

That’s not my take. Quoting the article:

An undisputed point in both the Techcrunch and Reuters stories is that the layoffs are primarily due to the extra people that Pixar hired to work on its Disney+ streaming projects, such as the upcoming Win or Lose. Those projects have now completed production and Disney CEO Bob Iger has curtailed investment in streaming until that segment become profitable, which he is “confident” will happen by the end of 2024.​

 

[TP2000]

The merger between Pixar and Disney Animation is imminent:

‘Significant’ Layoffs To Hit Pixar In 2024 – Report

'Significant' Layoffs To Hit Pixar In 2024 - Report

For the second year in a row, Disney-owned Pixar will undergo major layoffs.

www.cartoonbrew.com

Layoffs in Emeryville are a good first step, and not surprising considering the disastrous 2023 that Disney had at the box office.

But honestly they just need to close up shop in Emeryville and move Pixar down to Burbank as a branding tool for their animation offerings. Something tells me these aren't the last layoffs we'll hear about from Disney in the next few months...

Disney's Pixar Will Undergo Major Layoffs in 2024

A new report indicates that Pixar will see major layoffs impacting the company in 2024. The news comes on the heels of a couple of bad years for tentpole blockbusters, during which time Pixar movies like Lightyear and Elemental underperformed relative to studio expectations. Pixar is set to...

comicbook.com

 

[Phroobar]

They should have never gotten rid of John Lasseter.

 

[Indy_UK]

They should have never gotten rid of John Lasseter.

Has he actually done anything since going to Skydance animation? I feel he had already 'touched' his highest point before being dismissed.

 

[el_super]

Has he actually done anything since going to Skydance animation? I feel he had already 'touched' his highest point before being dismissed.

I see what you did there.

 

[Tha Realest]

Has he actually done anything since going to Skydance animation? I feel he had already 'touched' his highest point before being dismissed.

Because alleged sexual assault/harassment is funny. Get it?

 

[el_super]

Because alleged sexual assault/harassment is funny. Get it?

It's not funny, but it is a very good reason he will never work at Disney again.

 

[Phroobar]

Has he actually done anything since going to Skydance animation? I feel he had already 'touched' his highest point before being dismissed.

He produced Luck for Apple TV.

 

[Prince-1]

He produced Luck for Apple TV.

Which absolutely sucked.

 

[Tha Realest]

It's not funny, but it is a very good reason he will never work at Disney again.

His/her comment was clearly a joke, and your comment acknowledged it as such. Nice try walking it back. Hard to take the high road of why Lasseter is a terrible person while also trivializing what he’s been accused of.

I See What You Did There Meaning & Origin | Dictionary.com

I see what you did there is a colloquial expression acknowledging, with appreciation or sarcasm, that one gets a clever joke or witty remark.

www.dictionary.com

 

[TP2000]

Box office is in for Thursday, previewing the upcoming holiday weekend for Reverend King. A gaggle of new movies are opening this weekend to celebrate.

It will be interesting to see how many theaters Wish loses this weekend, as there's absolutely no reason why it needs 900 of them.

 

[brideck]

It will be interesting to see how many theaters Wish loses this weekend, as there's absolutely no reason why it needs 900 of them.

Not sure, but it's definitely still got more screens in Utah than Poor Things does (I can find 5 for PT, for the record), which makes total sense. I hear that's where all the hippest, most knowledgeable moviegoers are.

I also just noticed the per-screen average for Poor Things and its week-over-week hold (the best on the chart outside of the recently expanded indies with positive numbers). She's got legs, and she knows how to use them.

 

[TP2000]

I also just noticed the per-screen average for Poor Things and its week-over-week hold (the best on the chart outside of the recently expanded indies with positive numbers). She's got legs, and she knows how to use them.

What's your thought on when the Oscar bump will increase Poor Things 750 theater count? For Golden Globes Weekend last weekend it lost 50 theaters to celebrate its GG nominations. The moment Oscar noms are announced later this month, do you expect Poor Things to add theaters that week? Or does that not happen until the actual Oscars show airs that very few people watch any more?

Poor Things had a budget of $35 Million. With a guess at a miniscule marketing budget of $15 Million, that means that with Poor Things current box office of $16 Million, it's still about $40 Million in the hole.

The Poor Things example, which is perfect really, seems rather wasteful when none of the USA the parks still don't have a night parade, and no new ride is under construction on either coast. Will Sidekick Tightpants get away with another presentation at D23 Expo VISA The Ultimate Disney Fan Event this summer showing vague and unfunded blue sky concepts shown from above through hazy clouds while the studios vaporize untold millions of dollars? I really, really hope not.

Poor Things vaporized a small pile of cash, but please enjoy this hazy vague artwork of unfunded projects instead...

 

[TP2000]

Not sure there's a better thread for this, so I'll just put it here. An interesting take today on the Pixar layoffs news from the Bay Area media, with news that Pixar has already been trying to sub-lease 16,000 square feet of office space in Emeryville back in 2023, before the layoffs in '24.

For those unfamiliar with the Bay Area, Emeryville is in just as much of a societal/financial doom loop as its bigger neighbors San Francisco and Oakland. Huge swaths of empty offices, massive departures by major retailers and restaurants, and a pervasive homeless and crime problem with open drug use. I have to wonder if Pixar actually got someone to sublease from them yet?

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/disney-pixar-layoffs-18605432.php

The Pixar campus is located off Hollis St. in Emeryville. This is the Hollis Street freeway ramp that you would take off I-80 if you were commuting to the Pixar campus. Want to sublease any of these tents?

 

[DKampy]

What's your thought on when the Oscar bump will increase Poor Things 750 theater count? For Golden Globes Weekend last weekend it lost 50 theaters to celebrate its GG nominations. The moment Oscar noms are announced later this month, do you expect Poor Things to add theaters that week? Or does that not happen until the actual Oscars show airs that very few people watch any more?

Poor Things had a budget of $35 Million. With a guess at a miniscule marketing budget of $15 Million, that means that with Poor Things current box office of $16 Million, it's still about $40 Million in the hole.

The Poor Things example, which is perfect really, seems rather wasteful when none of the USA the parks still don't have a night parade, and no new ride is under construction on either coast. Will Sidekick Tightpants get away with another presentation at D23 Expo VISA The Ultimate Disney Fan Event this summer showing vague and unfunded blue sky concepts shown from above through hazy clouds while the studios vaporize untold millions of dollars? I really, really hope not.

Poor Things vaporized a small pile of cash, but please enjoy this hazy vague artwork of unfunded projects instead...

I expect in the next couple of weeks Poor things will begin upping it’s theater count… lots of competition for screens this weekend, but the next couple of weeks not so much… that’s when I expect to see some Oscar contenders to expand even wider… I have a feeling Poor Things is the film that will benefit the most from that

I suspect film budget and park budgets don’t affect each other…2 different divisions

 

[brideck]

What's your thought on when the Oscar bump will increase Poor Things 750 theater count? For Golden Globes Weekend last weekend it lost 50 theaters to celebrate its GG nominations. The moment Oscar noms are announced later this month, do you expect Poor Things to add theaters that week?

Oscar nominations are on a Tuesday (Jan 23), so you will see screen counts adjust the following weekend (Jan 26-28). Poor Things also finally arrives in some overseas markets (including the UK) this weekend, so it'll be interesting to see how it hits. The UK is especially notable in this case both because the director's previous film made more than $20 million there ($5 million opening weekend) and because it's based on an award-winning British book.

 

[brideck]

lots of competition for screens this weekend, but the next couple of weeks not so much

Huh. Yeah, I hadn't looked at the release calendar for Jan 26 & Feb 2 until now, but boy... there's not really anything is there? Theaters shouldn't have too much trouble making room to bounce Best Picture nominees back up in count.