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

Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
brideck said:
I think they're treated basically like any other special event, e.g. most things released through Fathom Events, like the annual Studio Ghibli Fest, etc. That sort of thing very rarely ever shows up in any of the domestic box office reports.
Click to expand...
Could be, it would be explain why they aren’t tracked domestically.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
brideck said:
The ones you highlighted are just small current releases on the way out, though. All 3 played at least one AMC near me, sometimes for multiple weeks. All of that stuff definitely gets tracked.

I'm talking about things like the upcoming 85th anniversary re-release of The Wizard of Oz -- https://www.fathomevents.com/events/the-wizard-of-oz-85th-anniversary/

I don't think you'll see that one get reported, despite it playing at least 15 theaters just in my area alone.
Click to expand...

Huh. Okay, which makes sense if the Disney 100 re-releases only played in 24 theaters nationwide, they are just too tiny to be counted or cared about. Something tells me the 24 theater count was a goal, and the reality was far less.

Again, which helps answer the question from @tcool123 that started this conversation... What's the analogy for the release of Soul in 1,350 theaters compared to the re-release of Moana in 24 (likely none) theaters that were never tracked or mentioned by anyone who tracks box office?

The only real analogy for Soul being released in 1,350 theaters is the re-release of Hocus Pocus in 1,375 theaters or the re-release of Nightmare Before Christmas in 1,650 theaters. Because the re-release of Frozen doing $27,000 in box office in the Netherlands but being untrackable in the USA doesn't make the case that Disney 100 was anything to compare to.

In short, the re-release of the eight Disney 100 movies is about as impactful as a religious movie screened in a megachurch basement or a niche documentary about bird migration screened in the student union at Fullerton Junior College (Go Hornets!).
 
brideck

brideck

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Huh. Okay, which makes sense if the Disney 100 re-releases only played in 24 theaters nationwide, they are just too tiny to be counted or cared about. Something tells me the 24 theater count was a goal, and the reality was far less.

Again, which helps answer the question from @tcool123 that started this conversation... What's the analogy for the release of Soul in 1,350 theaters compared to the re-release of Moana in 24 (likely none) theaters that were never tracked or mentioned by anyone who tracks box office?

The only real analogy for Soul being released in 1,350 theaters is the re-release of Hocus Pocus in 1,375 theaters or the re-release of Nightmare Before Christmas in 1,650 theaters. Because the re-release of Frozen doing $27,000 in box office in the Netherlands but being untrackable in the USA doesn't make the case that Disney 100 was anything to compare to.

In short, the re-release of the eight Disney 100 movies is about as impactful as a religious movie screened in a megachurch basement or a niche documentary about bird migration screened in the student union at Fullerton Junior College (Go Hornets!).
Click to expand...

Don't hold me to The Wizard of Oz specifically. It looks like some Fathom releases show up in the monthly/yearly box office results. I still definitely don't see specifics reported anywhere for stuff like Ghibli Fest, though, and that's an annual re-release event. It's even less clear to me how it's decided what gets reported -- it must be up to the distributor. For example, Netflix notoriously doesn't usually share any box office info for their prestige theatrical releases. So in this case, Disney didn't bother to share the results of those 8 extremely limited re-releases.
 
Phroobar

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Last year I remember seeing Nightmare before Christmas in the theater. It was fun but seeing Coraline a week before in the theater really shows how stop motion has progressed since. NBC felt very stiff and jumpy.
 
tcool123

tcool123

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
No wonder no one had mentioned this until @tcool123 brought it up. If you aren't Dutch, you didn't know it was happening. 🤣
Click to expand...
Toy Story was playing at my local Regal in West Kendall (neighborhood in Miami), saw Beauty and the Beast and Lion King - I have the receipts too , so they money taken was real all right.

W interesting though is that different countries had different films being shown. I believe the US had only 8 films, the UK had double.
 
brideck

brideck

Well-Known Member
It looks like Poor Things is expanding to 1400 screens this weekend and All of Us Strangers is going up to 295. It'll be interesting to see how that expansion goes without the benefit (yet) of Oscar nominations.

FWIW, Poor Things is currently the 2nd most popular movie on IMDb (behind Saltburn, of all things -- crazy how that's getting a ton of Internet buzz now that it's more or less out of theaters) and it's surpassed its predecessor's (The Favourite) peak on Google Trends. These could, of course, all just be people checking it out only to be turned off by the weirdness and nudity, but it is certainly being noticed.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
brideck said:
It looks like Poor Things is expanding to 1400 screens this weekend and All of Us Strangers is going up to 295. It'll be interesting to see how that expansion goes without the benefit (yet) of Oscar nominations.
Click to expand...

After their disastrous 2023, it would be wonderful if Disney's Searchlight had a movie that at least breaks even in 2024.

With its admirably modest $35 Million budget, maybe Poor Things is just the movie to do that?
 
brideck

brideck

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
After their disastrous 2023, it would be wonderful if Disney's Searchlight had a movie that at least breaks even in 2024.

With its admirably modest $35 Million budget, maybe Poor Things is just the movie to do that?
Click to expand...

It looks like Box Office Report is predicting $2.7 million for this weekend, which would keep it on the good side of the crucial $2000 per screen number it needs to hang on to screens -- good for an expanded pre-nominations performance. If that prediction holds, here's what the comp chart would look like:

1705730954582.png


Could next week's nominations actually manage to bump it ahead of The Favourite's trajectory? I can't say I would have expected that, but anything is seemingly possible here.
 
BrianLo

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
*No recent Disney analogy. When was Disney's last true blockbuster? The Black Panther? Frozen II?
Click to expand...

Definitely Way of Water. I guess we can get In the weeds and call that a global one.

Otherwise it was 2019 movies and several very strong 2022 marvel films (doctor strange particularly), but not the sheer domestic achievements that would be Endgame or No Way Home.
 
brideck

brideck

Well-Known Member
brideck said:
It looks like Box Office Report is predicting $2.7 million for this weekend, which would keep it on the good side of the crucial $2000 per screen number it needs to hang on to screens -- good for an expanded pre-nominations performance.
Click to expand...

Well, it looks like it was a pretty lousy weekend all around. Poor Things missed this bold prediction by a fair bit, and only four non-boutique releases overall even hit the desired $2000 per screen figure. BOR's estimated weekend take for some stuff:

1705861382365.png


[Note: There's a more complete chart, but the omitted movies are either gasping for air or are very small releases.]

PT did an additional $5 million overseas, so the slow, steady advance continues. We'll see what Oscar nominations on Tuesday do to screen counts next weekend. I've already seen evidence of things like The Holdovers coming back to screens near me. The Zone of Interest and Origin should also be expanding some next weekend. For those looking for Soul news, it pulled in $131,000 this weekend on 1350 screens -- although I know for sure that the number of screenings was cut back dramatically this weekend, e.g. there are only 9 screenings on 7 screens near me today.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Here's how the estimate for the weekend box office looks for Disney's four movies on The Numbers chart. Poor Things is down in 10th place, and Soul fell down to 27th with 1,350 theaters.

I can't imagine the theater chains are happy about that agreement with Disney to debut Soul on 1,350 screens. I do wonder how they end this rather disastrous re-release strategy for the remaining two movies, Turning Red and Luca. Do they abandon it and only ask for a few hundred theaters, or do they have to contractually keep something like 1,300 theaters and thus try and market it a bit more?

Regardless, the Pixar re-release gimmick of '24 seems like a disaster for Emeryville.

Weekend Estimate.jpg


And then further down the list in the twenties, you get the other three movies from Disney owned studios... :oops:

Weekend In The Twenties.jpg
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
EPCOT-O.G. said:
If this was all a gambit to improve the brand and morale at Pixar, this grand experiment seems to be self-defeating
Click to expand...

No kidding.

You just have to wonder what they were expecting from this, what the goal was? Especially with 1,350 theaters.

And then you have to ask where they go from here. Another 1,350 theaters and 25th place for Turning Red?

Who is making these decisions?

And will they course correct or adjust at all after the box office response (or rather, non-response) to Soul?
 
Phroobar

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
So that is like 3 people per day per theater. There is only one movie time for my theater.

However, Cowboy Bebop: the movie has two movie times. I'll have to go take the boy to see that.
 

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

Back
Top Bottom