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

[Chi84]

Speaking for myself, I don't need people to agree with me, I'd just prefer the signal to noise ratio be improved here. And it's a problem when a large chunk of the noise is presented as signal.

You have the power to turn off the noise. Many posters have seen what’s going on here and left the thread some time ago.

It would be nice to get it back to the kind of reasonable discussions that occurred before the hijacking.

 

[brideck]

You have the power to turn off the noise. Many posters have seen what’s going on here and left the thread some time ago.

It would be nice to get it back to the kind of reasonable discussions that occurred before the hijacking.

Sadly, I don't. I tried to circumvent it for a few weeks in January by posting weekend BO reports myself in order to have a more even-keeled presentation as a seed for conversation. It didn't stop the exact same information from being redundantly presented a day later with the all-too-familiar framing.

 

[Chi84]

Sadly, I don't. I tried to circumvent it for a few weeks in January by posting weekend BO reports myself in order to have a more even-keeled presentation. It didn't stop the exact same information from being redundantly presented a day later with the all-too-familiar framing.

Oh you mean “You are ignoring content by this member?” Didn’t see it.

 

[brideck]

Oh you mean “You are ignoring content by this member?” Didn’t see it.

I guess I'd die on the hill of anyone can come to get a real understanding of a topic if they're actually interested. But that's probably my mistake to think that there's an actual interest here.

The entire concept of this thread is moot anyway, since no one really knows how Disney can overcome the ongoing smear campaign to regain broader cultural cachet and the corresponding box office share. The "make good movies, bro" sentiment is pretty bankrupt because the vast majority of tentpole movies Disney has made over the last 20 years haven't been particularly good and their process of writing/rewriting movies while production is ongoing is terribly broken, but they've somehow managed to get away with it for far too long.

 

[Chi84]

I guess what I’m saying is why not just post your own charts, opinions, whatever without the arguing. People will be able to figure things out for themselves.

 

[BuddyThomas]

I guess I'd die on the hill of anyone can come to get a real understanding of a topic if they're actually interested. But that's probably my mistake to think that there's an actual interest here.

The entire concept of this thread is moot anyway, since no one really knows how Disney can overcome the ongoing smear campaign to regain broader cultural cachet and the corresponding box office share. The "make good movies, bro" sentiment is pretty bankrupt because the vast majority of tentpole movies Disney has made over the last 20 years haven't been particularly good and their process of writing/rewriting movies while production is ongoing is terribly broken, but they've somehow managed to get away with it for far too long.

You can also say this about any studio. Good movies are few and far between.

 

[brideck]

You can also say this about any studio. Good movies are few and far between.

Absolutely true. Although the writing the 3rd act during filming is, if not unique to the MCU, something that was popularized by it.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

It's 20th Century, not Searchlight. And as recently discussed, horror movies can be a pretty significant profit driver, but that's really up to virality and the whims of audiences. You can't really generate that with any sort of intention, but the potential for a boom in the genre is why so many studios continue to try to serve the horror audience.

Edit: I just saw a TV ad for this (watching the NCAA tournament), and... I can't tell what I think. The trailer is so stylized (with its reversed film) that it's really hard to get an accurate impression. I'm not really the target market, though. I've never even seen The Omen.

I think that’s the biggest challenge. The Omen and Damien: Omen II were never as big as The Exorcist, Halloween, etc. AFAIK.

Nobody’s listening to it now. It’s just a handful of people reacting and arguing.

I’ve had it blocked for a good while now. If I have no respect or use for most of what someone says, I have no interest in what they say.

I guess I'd die on the hill of anyone can come to get a real understanding of a topic if they're actually interested. But that's probably my mistake to think that there's an actual interest here.

The entire concept of this thread is moot anyway, since no one really knows how Disney can overcome the ongoing smear campaign to regain broader cultural cachet and the corresponding box office share. The "make good movies, bro" sentiment is pretty bankrupt because the vast majority of tentpole movies Disney has made over the last 20 years haven't been particularly good and their process of writing/rewriting movies while production is ongoing is terribly broken, but they've somehow managed to get away with it for far too long.

What worked for them to boost numbers with or without basis (“Disney is family friendly”) now works against them, equally baselessly. (“Disney is not family friendly.”)

 

[brideck]

I think that’s the biggest challenge. The Omen and Damien: Omen II were never as big as The Exorcist, Halloween, etc. AFAIK.

I'd never actually looked before, but it looks like the original release of each franchise did a similar $60m-$70m in the domestic BO, but The Exorcist was re-released multiple times and Halloween had countless sequels, so in that sense The Omen has probably been the one with the least enduring cultural relevancy.

Having said that, the 2006 movie did $54m/$119m so it wasn't completely moribund as of... 18 years ago.

 

[DKampy]

If it cost anything like that, I think you would have seen them put it on more than 200 screens in order to try to recoup that investment. Having said that, I'm still confused by the release strategy here. This was an extremely well-received movie and it was given the smallest number of screens of recent Searchlight movies by an order of magnitude -- 1/3 of even what Theater Camp or Empire of Light had.

I would imagine the cost was a pretty small….there were only 4 actors throughout most of the film and I don’t recall seeing any marketing at all…I don’t know if I would know if it existed if I did not follow what films were releasing each week

yes…I could not find All of Strangers playing on any screens near me…and I was checking after all the stellar reviews…I had to wait until streaming…I don’t live in New York or LA but Milwaukee is a decent enough market that I usually get any limited release films if there is any buzz at all where I live…you would think there would be a market for it here as Milwaukee has a decent sized gay community

 

[Epcot81Fan]

Bob Iger has admitted publicly there is a retrenchment and rethink going on at his major studios. They canned Snow White from releasing this month and pushed it to 2025 for a full remake, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it dumped on Disney+ in '25 either.

Don’t forget “Captain America: This Time Without Captain America!”, which was also unceremoniously pulled from the 2024 release slate in order to “rethink” it.

 

[TP2000]

I guess what I’m saying is why not just post your own charts, opinions, whatever without the arguing. People will be able to figure things out for themselves.

You should go for it!

If there's some alternate version of global box office receipts that can make this type of performance look better, there's a lot of lifelong Disney fans and plenty of Disney shareholders that would love to see it. Until then, we've got these facts...

 

[brideck]

The Favourite ran all the way into mid-April. Given that Poor Things is already on Hulu, it'll be interesting to see how much post-ceremony run it continues to get. The Favourite was on pVOD before the Oscars, too, but I can't find any articles about when it was first included on a service like Hulu.

The answer to this is apparently not too much post-ceremony run for Poor Things, which makes sense given its presence on Hulu. It is completely gone from my area AMCs as of this coming weekend. As are the other Oscar-nominated movies, e.g. Oppenheimer, Zone of Interest, etc.

Also gone are massive flameouts Argylle (7 weeks) and Madame Web (5 weeks). There's a whole lot of scrambling for mid-tier screens underneath the large shadows of Ghostbusters, Kung Fu Panda, and Dune.

 

[brideck]

I wonder if there will be any viral catch on for the Late Night with The Devil. Probably not, but while on the subject, that comes out next weekend and has been advertising on my circles online for it. Can't speak for how much on others.
Ghostbusters is next week's clear number one opener.

I stand corrected on this one. It's getting a limited release at some of my area AMCs, about half the screens of what Terrifier 2 got at its peak, for whatever that's worth. [So maybe ~800 screens nationwide?] iFC/Shudder stuff tends to get a pretty haphazard and short release, so it'll really have to go nuts to go anywhere. Immaculate's got a whole pile of screens, too, so the Devil has got an uphill battle ahead of himself.

 

[celluloid]

I stand corrected on this one. It's getting a limited release at some of my area AMCs, about half the screens of what Terrifier 2 got at its peak, for whatever that's worth. [So maybe ~800 screens nationwide?] iFC/Shudder stuff tends to get a pretty haphazard and short release, so it'll really have to go nuts to go anywhere. Immaculate's got a whole pile of screens, too, so the Devil has got an uphill battle ahead of himself.

The only possession connection movie I think is a safe bet for the next season is Ghostbusters.

 

[celluloid]

Wow. Maybe it will grow virally to a wider release...;-)

 

[brideck]

Wow. Maybe it will grow virally to a wider release...;-)

Early days, but a 73 Metascore, too. That beats the pants off of the mid-40s scores that Ghostbusters and Immaculate are sitting at right now.

 

[celluloid]

Early days, but a 73 Metascore, too. That beats the pants off of the mid-40s scores that Ghostbusters and Immaculate are sitting at right now.

Makes me nervous that Frozen Empire is more Gil Keenan's Monster House than Rietman's coming of age touch for Afterlife.

I will know tomorrow. I am still excited for aspects of it!

 

[brideck]

Makes me nervous that Frozen Empire is more Gil Keenan's Monster House than Rietman's coming of age touch for Afterlife.

I will know tomorrow. I am still excited for aspects of it!

I think if anything it'll end up being a little too heavy on bringing back the original cast. They've cast a bunch of delightful actors for all of the new characters, so I wish they didn't feel like they had to trot out way-past-their-primes Aykroyd & Murray for this.

 

[celluloid]

I think if anything it'll end up being a little too heavy on bringing back the original cast. They've cast a bunch of delightful actors for all of the new characters, so I wish they didn't feel like they had to trot out way-past-their-primes Aykroyd & Murray for this.

Funny enough, some critics have said that was its strength.