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

[TalkingHead]

Disney Shakeup: Sean Bailey Exits As President Of Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios, Searchlight’s David Greenbaum Takes Over & Also Will Run 20th

Walt Disney's President of Motion Picture Studios Sean Bailey is departing after 15 years on the lot.

deadline.com

Grab the popcorn

 

[BuddyThomas]

Poor Things has now grossed more than the directors last film The Favourite… It is about to cross a hundred million worldwide with 2 weeks until the Oscars which I believe is what the haters said it needed to break even… I wonder if they will admit it’s a hit now

Don’t hold your breath.

 

[TP2000]

Hi gang! Hope everyone had a fun weekend. The box office data is now out for this past weekend.

What stands out to me is the incredible staying power of Migration and Wonka. They're still in the Top 10 almost three months later! This tells me there is strong market demand for family movies in traditional theaters; movies parents can comfortably take their young children to, buy popcorn and Cokes, and keep the suburban multiplexes humming.

Poor Things is at #15 this weekend.

Wish and All Of Us Strangers dropped into the 30's this weekend. Referencing where Wish is, and then looking where Wonka and Migration are still sitting this weekend, and I ask myself "How could Burbank screw this up so badly?!?"

The Numbers - Weekend Box Office Chart for August 2, 2024

Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for the weekend of August 2, 2024

www.the-numbers.com

 

[BuddyThomas]

Hi gang! Hope everyone had a fun weekend. The box office data is now out for this past weekend.

What stands out to me is the incredible staying power of Migration and Wonka. They're still in the Top 10 almost three months later! This tells me there is strong market demand for family movies in traditional theaters; movies parents can comfortably take their young children to, buy popcorn and Cokes, and keep the suburban multiplexes humming.

View attachment 770376

Poor Things is at #15 this weekend.

View attachment 770377

Wish and All Of Us Strangers dropped into the 30's this weekend. Referencing where Wish is, and then looking where Wonka and Migration are still sitting this weekend, and I ask myself "How could Burbank screw this up so badly?!?"

View attachment 770378

The Numbers - Weekend Box Office Chart for August 2, 2024

Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for the weekend of August 2, 2024

www.the-numbers.com

For your information, All of Us Strangers is now on Hulu, so your gleeful little post that it is in the “30’s” is absolutely irrelevant.

The Best Movie of 2023 Is Now on Hulu

Everything we can't stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[TP2000]

As for falsehoods, back in January @MrPromey did a wonderful job of explaining to me that these little artsy films aren't designed to make much money at the box office; rather, they are designed to keep talent engaged and creative until the studio needs them for their next big tentpole movie that actually is designed to make money at the box office. It's sort of like the Works Progress Administration, keeping folks working until better days arrive.

After that information was processed from Mr. Promey, I said this about Poor Things back on January 19th...

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?

The problem is that in 2023 almost all of Disney's tentpoles from the flagship studios did badly at the box office and lost hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for Disney. Which makes losing money at their little artsy Searchlight brand far more troubling than it should be.

But at least it looks like Poor Things will break even at the box office, if All Of Us Strangers does not. Now we just need Disney to get back to making profitable, successful tentpoles from Marvel, WDAS, Walt Disney Pictures, Lucasfilm, and Pixar.

 

[BuddyThomas]

As for falsehoods, back in January @MrPromey did a wonderful job of explaining to me that these little artsy films aren't designed to make much money at the box office; rather, they are designed to keep talent engaged and creative until the studio needs them for their next big tentpole movie that actually is designed to make money at the box office. It's sort of like the Works Progress Administration, keeping folks working until better days arrive.

After that information was processed from Mr. Promey, I said this about Poor Things back on January 19th...



The problem is that in 2023 almost all of Disney's tentpoles from the flagship studios did badly at the box office and lost hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for Disney. Which makes losing money at their little artsy Searchlight brand far more troubling than it should be.

But at least it looks like Poor Things will break even at the box office, if All Of Us Strangers does not. Now we just need Disney to get back to making profitable, successful tentpoles from Marvel, WDAS, Walt Disney Pictures, Lucasfilm, and Pixar.

Poor Things will more than “break even” at the box office. You have called it a flop from day one. Admit that you were wrong and move on.

 

[TP2000]

Poor Things will more than “break even” at the box office. You have called it a flop from day one. Admit that you were wrong and move on.

If we assume that they only spent a shoestring global marketing budget of $15 Million on it, with its stated production budget of $35 Million, as of this past weekend it is very close to breaking even at "only" a $1 Million loss. Poor Things very well could end up making a profit of $5 Million or more by the weekend after the Oscars!

Which then begs the question, how much has Searchlight lost on All Of Us Strangers at the same time?

Poor Things: $35 Production, $15 Marketing, Domestic B.O. Take $20, Foreign B.O. Take $29 = $1 Million Loss

 

[BuddyThomas]

If we assume that they only spent a shoestring global marketing budget of $15 Million on it, with its stated production budget of $35 Million, as of this past weekend it is very close to breaking even at "only" a $1 Million loss. Poor Things very well could end up making a profit of $5 Million or more by the weekend after the Oscars!

Which then begs the question, how much has Searchlight lost on All Of Us Strangers at the same time?

Poor Things: $35 Production, $15 Marketing, Domestic B.O. Take $20, Foreign B.O. Take $29 = $1 Million Loss

View attachment 770391

As has been explained multiple times, All of Us Strangers has a total of four (4) speaking roles in the ENTIRE film. The budget is minuscule. It most certainly will be profitable and it has won all sorts of awards as well.

 

[BuddyThomas]

He will never watch All of us Strangers even on streaming so he will never know

You’re 100% correct, and really too bad on his part. But what can ya do?

 

[MrPromey]

Disney Shakeup: Sean Bailey Exits As President Of Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios, Searchlight’s David Greenbaum Takes Over & Also Will Run 20th

Walt Disney's President of Motion Picture Studios Sean Bailey is departing after 15 years on the lot.

deadline.com

Grab the popcorn

I found this bit interesting:

"... and this is a big opportunity to broaden the Disney Motion Picture Studios business beyond primarily mining the animation catalog for live action hits."

... strongly implying Bailey's only ability as head of WDMP was to find ways to make money off the company's previous creative successes - not actually making new ones - and if that's how he was seen, that he lasted so long in his position says a whole lot about management's priorities over the last decade or so.

Anyway, sounds like someone is at least trying to right the ship, now.

 

[Disney Irish]

I found this bit interesting:

"and this is a big opportunity to broaden the Disney Motion Picture Studios business beyond primarily mining the animation catalog for live action hits."

... strongly implying Bailey's only ability as head of WDMP was to find ways to make money off the company's previous creative successes and if that's how he was seen, that he lasted so long in his position says a whole lot about management's priorities over the last decade or so.

Anyway, sounds like someone is at least trying to right the ship, now.

I was thinking the same thing, it seems that Disney is now looking to go beyond the live action remakes which is what many here complain about.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

OK here’s a weird one I haven’t seen discussed, but saw it had a couple of nominations, so I watched it during a free Cinemax weekend: Beau Is Afraid.

Joaquin Phoenix really can’t act badly. Patti LuPone is in it. Nathan Lane is in it.

This started off like a “normal movie,” sort of, and got nuttier and nuttier over the three hour runtime. Truth be told, I fast-forwarded past at least an hour of it.

I guess I’m not as arty as I thought.

And it even had a Mariah Carey song in it.

 

[brideck]

OK here’s a weird one I haven’t seen discussed, but saw it had a couple of nominations, so I watched it during a free Cinemax weekend: Beau Is Afraid.

Joaquin Phoenix really can’t act badly. Patti LuPone is in it. Nathan Lane is in it.

This started off like a “normal movie,” sort of, and got nuttier and nuttier over the three hour runtime. Truth be told, I fast-forwarded past at least an hour of it.

I guess I’m not as arty as I thought.

And it even had a Mariah Carey song in it.

Oh, man. We really enjoyed Beau is Afraid, but were apparently mostly alone in that since no one else saw it in the theaters. The depiction of the world in the first act is 100% what I think Fox News viewers believe the world to be like.

It's the kind of massive swing for the fences that movies need to do more often; however, it did not manage to capitalize on its $35m budget (compare to Poor Things here) and A24 has announced that they're going to have to pivot to making more mainstream fare as a result.

 

[MrPromey]

OK here’s a weird one I haven’t seen discussed, but saw it had a couple of nominations, so I watched it during a free Cinemax weekend: Beau Is Afraid.

Joaquin Phoenix really can’t act badly. Patti LuPone is in it. Nathan Lane is in it.

This started off like a “normal movie,” sort of, and got nuttier and nuttier over the three hour runtime. Truth be told, I fast-forwarded past at least an hour of it.

I guess I’m not as arty as I thought.

And it even had a Mariah Carey song in it.

Oh gosh, I started to watch this one on, I think... Paramount? Peacock? I'm not even sure.

I thought the trailer looked interesting but, man, I only made it to the point where his stuff got stolen when his apartment door got left open and it felt painful getting that far, which I don't think was even very far in.

So you're saying it's not at that sort of pace the whole time?

Maybe I'll try to pick it back up from there.

This feels like a situation where seeing a movie in the theater is better because I'd have sat there and toughed it out if I'd paid and was sitting there in the dark vs. watching it while laying in bed trying to stay awake through it.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Oh gosh, I started to watch this one on, I think... Paramount? Peacock? I'm not even sure.

I thought the trailer looked interesting but, man, I only made it to the point where his stuff got stolen when his apartment door got left open and it felt painful getting that far, which I don't think was even very far in.

So you're saying it's not at that sort of pace the whole time?

Maybe I'll try to pick it back up from there.

This feels like a situation where seeing a movie in the theater is better because I'd have sat there and toughed it out if I'd paid and was sitting there in the dark vs. watching it while laying in bed trying to stay awake through it.

That was not very far in.

I can only take so much of a film or show wherein the lead actor is constantly stressed, embarrassed, etc. If they’re having a tough time, I’m having a tough time.

So when his very bad, no good day continued to get worse and worse, with odd extreme things happening, I bailed using the FFWD, but had seen enough that I wanted to see the ending.

To say it was nuts is both an understatement and entirely on the nose.

A few left and right turns here and there, and it may have ended up a more mainstream dark flick, albeit disturbing. When you leave the plane of reality, I find it hard to go along. Also, when violence is meant to be funny, you totally lose me (like A Clockwork Orange.)

I need to watch Wonka again to recover lol.

 

[MrPromey]

That was not very far in.

I can only take so much of a film or show wherein the lead actor is constantly stressed, embarrassed, etc. If they’re having a tough time, I’m having a tough time.

So when his very bad, no good day continued to get worse and worse, with odd extreme things happening, I bailed using the FFWD, but had seen enough that I wanted to see the ending.

To say it was nuts is both an understatement and entirely on the nose.

A few left and right turns here and there, and it may have ended up a more mainstream dark flick, albeit disturbing. When you leave the plane of reality, I find it hard to go along. Also, when violence is meant to be funny, you totally lose me (like A Clockwork Orange.)

I need to watch Wonka again to recover lol.

You know, I think that's what it was - his high level of stress and anxiety and nothing else to really anchor it to up to that point.

The whole thing with the guy chasing him down the street until he got into his building and pulled the door shut with seemingly no reason kind of bothered me, too.

I was tired when I started with it so it probably wasn't my best choice at the time.

I'll give it another try. I liked "I'm Thinking of Ending Things"* so I might do better when more alert.

*Liked isn't the right word but I can't think of the right way of putting it... had an appreciation for, maybe?

 

[brideck]

Yeah, I might do some comparisons year-over-year for limited releases as a whole to see what that trend looks like.

All right, so I think that the guess that art theater audiences are doing better than general audiences post-pandemic is incorrect.

I took a super generous definition for "limited" release of less than 3000 screens maximum for this experiment. That seems big, but when you consider that things like Poor Things and Parasite and Uncut Gems all played on 2000+ screens, I think it needs to be. I should also note that the 2023 release numbers are incomplete, since some of those movies are still in theaters earning a bit of cash, but that won't make a substantial difference.

In 2019, there were 706 such releases, grossing a combined $1.8b. This accounts for only 16% of the total box office that year, and measures out to just a touch over 200 million tickets sold.

In 2023, there were only 427 such releases (although it should be noted that some Fathom Events no longer seem to report numbers and all of their releases would qualify for this. They only totaled $53m in 2019, though), grossing a combined $1.1b. This accounts for only 12.5% of the total box office, and equals about 105 million tickets sold.

These smaller releases have actually lost market share to the blockbusters and by tickets sold have retained only 52% of their customer base. This number is smaller than what it actually is for the reasons listed above, but I don't think those are enough to bring it in line with the 68% number that represents the entire domestic theater market.

ETA: 2023 actually represents a pretty significant improvement on 2022's EEAaO-fueled numbers. In 2022, there were 392 movies, grossing $681m. Less than 10% of the total box office for the year.

 

[TalkingHead]

Anyway, sounds like someone is at least trying to right the ship, now.

Two odd points: 1) he’s serving as president of Dis live-action and 20th Century, but his resume would suggest he’s more aligned with the latter; 2) Bailey will still be producing Tron 3. Might as well put that one out to pasture.

Could be that the future of Disney live-action becomes more anemic.

 

[Disney Irish]

Two odd points: 1) he’s serving as president of Dis live-action and 20th Century, but his resume would suggest he’s more aligned with the latter; 2) Bailey will still be producing Tron 3. Might as well put that one out to pasture.

Could be that the future of Disney live-action becomes more anemic.

Not sure why you would think it might become more anemic. I take this as a good sign, one that puts Disney live action back to doing diverse projects and not just remakes of their previous animated movies. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

As for Tron: Ares, that I imagine will continue without much issue even if Bailey is staying on as a producer, especially since filming already started.

 

[DKampy]

If we assume that they only spent a shoestring global marketing budget of $15 Million on it, with its stated production budget of $35 Million, as of this past weekend it is very close to breaking even at "only" a $1 Million loss. Poor Things very well could end up making a profit of $5 Million or more by the weekend after the Oscars!

Which then begs the question, how much has Searchlight lost on All Of Us Strangers at the same time?

Poor Things: $35 Production, $15 Marketing, Domestic B.O. Take $20, Foreign B.O. Take $29 = $1 Million Loss

View attachment 770391

you do realize once a film breaks even at the theatrical box office everything else is gravy…it will continue to add to it’s profits long after it’s theater run is done….I imagine the profits will especially continue with those average film goers who were afraid to take a chance on an artful film such as Poor Things…but will be willing to take a chance on a rental out of curiosity especially with all the awards talk…This is very much a win for Disney