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

brideck

Well-Known Member
I've never heard of The Favourite, but it apparently came out in 2018 according to The Numbers.

I'm sorry, but now you're just outing yourself as someone who couldn't be bothered to ever read what other people have to say in this thread, which explains so much really. I told you (very specifically you) to use The Favourite as a comp for Poor Things 3 months ago in this very thread. If you'd done that, you might have understood prestige art film legs, Oscar bumps, and all of the other things that you have claimed over time to not exist.
 

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
I'm sorry, but now you're just outing yourself as someone who couldn't be bothered to ever read what other people have to say in this thread, which explains so much really. I told you (very specifically you) to use The Favourite as a comp for Poor Things 3 months ago in this very thread. If you'd done that, you might have understood prestige art film legs, Oscar bumps, and all of the other things that you have claimed over time to not exist.
I also think it's a film he'd actually enjoy (based on his sensibilities as he's described them to us).
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I'm sorry, but now you're just outing yourself as someone who couldn't be bothered to ever read what other people have to say in this thread, which explains so much really. I told you (very specifically you) to use The Favourite as a comp for Poor Things 3 months ago in this very thread. If you'd done that, you might have understood prestige art film legs, Oscar bumps, and all of the other things that you have claimed over time to not exist.

Do I get 3 Demerits for that lapse in my judgement, or is it so egregious that it goes straight to a Verbal Citation?

I should have said "I had never heard of The Favourite until this thread..." as I do vaguely remember you mentioning it as a reasonable comp for Poor Things. But as I've never seen the movie, or heard about it until this thread, it's not top of mind.

Did you at least find my chart adjusted for inflation I made and pasted here for you helpful? :)
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Wonka and Migration are playing like most of the Renaissance-era Disney animations did over 1989-92, which ran into spring at first-run multiplexes. For that matter, Frozen ran and ran that way too. I'm sure Disney thought Wish was going to have similar legs, but the word of mouth just. wasn't. there. It wasn't a movie people recommended to their friends, and the 100th anniversary just wasn't enough of a hook. (That, and Wish looked comparatively "girly", possibly turning off families with boys.)

Interesting point.

If Wish had just bombed like it did without Wonka and Migration coming along a few weeks later, someone could make a reasonable claim that families don't take their kids to the movies now like they did before Covid. Or blame it on winter weather, or cheap 4K televisions and streaming, or something. But the success of Wonka and Migration at the same time Wish was in thousands of theaters really spells out how badly Disney misjudged their audience and the marketplace for family films.

Disney has a huge problem on its hands with its traditional market demographic, but it's unclear if Burbank fully realizes it.

This alarming box office data for Disney is adjusted for inflation of the past 35 years...

One OF These Things Is Not Like The Other, One Of These Things Just Doesn't Belong....jpg
 

TalkingHead

Well-Known Member
Wonka’s an interesting case. It’s made good money for 2023/2024 but I haven’t heard anything about its musical qualities (i.e. are any of the songs showing signs of popularity, usually the hallmark of a culturally relevant musical?).
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Wonka’s an interesting case. It’s made good money for 2023/2024 but I haven’t heard anything about its musical qualities (i.e. are any of the songs showing signs of popularity, usually the hallmark of a culturally relevant musical?).

That the score was totally ignored by the Academy despite the timing of its release, and mostly good notices, says a lot.

I'm also not getting the songs recommended on YouTube and don't know what kind of views they're getting (a good metric of general popularity).

I would say that making over $600 million worldwide for this kind of movie is excellent, and not just by 2023 standards. It's far more than The Greatest Showman, which was considered a smash for the genre (but had a more popular soundtrack).
 

Wendy Pleakley

Well-Known Member
Wonka’s an interesting case. It’s made good money for 2023/2024 but I haven’t heard anything about its musical qualities (i.e. are any of the songs showing signs of popularity, usually the hallmark of a culturally relevant musical?).

Personally speaking, the opening song was the only one I listened to again after watching the movie.

The music was fine. The songs were good but not great. They served their purpose adequately and were then immediately forgotten.
 

brideck

Well-Known Member
Did you at least find my chart adjusted for inflation I made and pasted here for you helpful? :)

Absolutely not, as I already stated in a semi-recent reply. Inflation's only useful when trying to directly compare the gross of two movies across the gulf of time, which doesn't have anything useful to say in this case (and rarely does anyway except in the case of some kind of stupid fandom ****-measuring contest). We're measuring these movies against their respective budgets, etc., correct?

I've been comparing them just to show the relative trajectories over the course of their releases, and to show if Poor Things is seemingly on the right track or not. The answer has been a resounding yes every time I've updated the chart. Unless you think $92m worldwide (and counting) is somehow not good enough in this case. Sure beats the $2m you were sure it had bombed with in December.

Updated through the weekend:

1708315557997.png


ODR: 24/41
 
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Disney Irish

Premium Member
Wonka’s an interesting case. It’s made good money for 2023/2024 but I haven’t heard anything about its musical qualities (i.e. are any of the songs showing signs of popularity, usually the hallmark of a culturally relevant musical?).

It hasn't had much impact in the overall music scene, but its had some success with Pure Imagination on the Tiktok charts.

Here is a breakdown from Billboard on its musical impact -

 

brideck

Well-Known Member
If Wish had just bombed like it did without Wonka and Migration coming along a few weeks later, someone could make a reasonable claim that families don't take their kids to the movies now like they did before Covid.

But this is actually at least a little true. If you do something crazy like calculate the number of tickets sold (using avg prices for the respective years) for Frozen II in the holiday season of 2019 and compare it with the combined number of tickets sold for this season's holiday fare (Wonka, Trolls, Migration, Wish) you come up with 25-30% of the 2019 family moviegoers having now gone AWOL from theaters. Did Wish finish last out of this year's movies? Definitely, but at least some of that has to do with other studios not just conceding the reduced post-pandemic family movie market to Disney anymore at the holidays. The only "competitors" in 2019 were Spies in Disguise (which was a 20th Century movie) and the amazing Playmobil movie.

Heck, the #1 movie over the holidays this year wasn't even a family movie. It was the Hunger Games prequel, starring that known box office poison, er, sweetheart, er... tell me what to think again?
 
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BrianLo

Well-Known Member
I'm somewhat curious how Content Sales and Licensing is fully reported and it's a bit of a unique time to witness that next quarter. I assume they declare the production budget at the time of the films release? So theoretically we won't have much in terms of negative pressure this forthcoming quarter since nothing is really being released. Just the marketing costs of the Pixar films theatrical releases. Likewise we have very insignificant box office performance going on.

So everything it captures is mostly going to be post-theatrical performances of the films already out.

If it's significantly negative, well then that's not how it is reported after all.


Edit: Yes I think that's how it works, as the Studio segment was still reporting significant profits during the Pandemic closures. Though it was reported as a different line item before restructuring. To some posters points I think post theatrical matters, but it is not clearly covering up the totality of the poor 2023 performance. They are down 540 million (currently, which isn't the billion+ touted), but that also might get eroded further as licensing is ongoing.
 
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TalkingHead

Well-Known Member
I would say that making over $600 million worldwide for this kind of movie is excellent, and not just by 2023 standards. It's far more than The Greatest Showman, which was considered a smash for the genre (but had a more popular soundtrack).
I was thinking in terms of IP star vehicle tentpoles where $600m is respectable but not zeitgeisty.

Interestingly, looks like La La Land in 2016 performed almost identically when adjusted for inflation. Crazy that an original property like that could make that kind of money less than a decade ago.
 

Ghost93

Well-Known Member
So Madame Web flopped this past weekend. It was a terrible movie, although I personally enjoyed it due to unintentionally hilarious dialogue and Dakota Johnson's "I don't want to be here making this movie" performance.

While it is a Sony film and not a Disney film, I think bad superhero movies like Madame Web will further contribute to superhero fatigue and people turning against the genre. And I doubt the average moviegoer knows the difference between the Sony Marvel movies and the MCU.

So while Deadpool 3 is the only "official" MCU movie in 2024 and Disney is mostly taking a break, the presence of movies like Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter and Venom 3 will make general audiences feel like there hasn't been a break from Marvel.
 

Miss Rori

Well-Known Member
I would say that making over $600 million worldwide for this kind of movie is excellent, and not just by 2023 standards. It's far more than The Greatest Showman, which was considered a smash for the genre (but had a more popular soundtrack).
I'm very fond of the Wonka songs, but it is an old-fashioned theatrical score that was clearly not written to spawn pop hits, YouTube covers, America's Got Talent performances, or be licensed out to commercials. (It's way closer to a Sherman Brothers score than a Lin-Manuel Miranda one.) The songs are too specific to be easily plucked out of context, and there's no barn-burner solo in the "Let It Go" mold, so I'm not surprised they don't get talked up much. But I think that's better than the Wish songs being talked up for all the wrong reasons.
 

_caleb

Well-Known Member
While it is a Sony film and not a Disney film, I think bad superhero movies like Madame Web will further contribute to superhero fatigue and people turning against the genre.
This is what I think they need to figure out: how to make "super-hero films" not a genre. There is enough great content in the Marvel universe that they should be making all kinds of content: thrillers, comedies, westerns, heists, crime/procedurals, action, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, etc. I know they've tried some of these with varying degrees of success, but they always seem to want to return to the Avengers formula and in my opinion, it's holding them back.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
So while Deadpool 3 is the only "official" MCU movie in 2024 and Disney is mostly taking a break, the presence of movies like Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter and Venom 3 will make general audiences feel like there hasn't been a break from Marvel.

There's also new Marvel content on Disney+ this year too, so not really of a break.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
So Madame Web flopped this past weekend. It was a terrible movie, although I personally enjoyed it due to unintentionally hilarious dialogue and Dakota Johnson's "I don't want to be here making this movie" performance.

You are very kind to call Madame Web's box office performance merely a "flop". Someone appreciates it, I'm sure. :)

While it is a Sony film and not a Disney film, I think bad superhero movies like Madame Web will further contribute to superhero fatigue and people turning against the genre. And I doubt the average moviegoer knows the difference between the Sony Marvel movies and the MCU.

I was certainly confused, until @MisterPenguin provided me a bullet list of explanations and legal reasons why/how Sony and Marvel handle Spiderman stuff. I appreciated it, and it makes more sense now, at least legally if not artistically.

Spiderman has a D Ticket ride at DCA's Marvel Avengers Campus, but Madame Web isn't mentioned there in the land. But why not, she's branded as a Marvel product. It's weird. And who would think Madame Web was not a Marvel product when it's branded as Marvel?

madame-web-poster-by-marvel.jpg
 
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