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

[TP2000]

Just FYI, but graphic nudity normally just means a male full frontal. (Sorry Disney message board)

It's been fine for women all these years, but men get the graphic warning.

Yet another completely unfair practice in Hollywood!

But the article I read stated there was a very graphic and gory scene in this one involving a young lady.

Putting the graphic nude gore aside (please!), I'm still baffled they released this dark and brooding horror film in April.

Why not wait until October when the audience mood is ready for dark tales, instead of releasing this at the start of happy, shiny Spring Break Fun-Fun-Fun! season?

 

[pigglewiggle]

Yet another completely unfair practice in Hollywood!

But the article I read stated there was a very graphic and gory scene in this one involving a young lady.

Putting the graphic nude gore aside (please!), I'm still baffled they released this dark and brooding horror film in April.

Why not wait until October when the audience mood is ready for dark tales, instead of releasing this at the start of happy, shiny Spring Break Fun-Fun-Fun! season?

I'm always in the mood for a horror movie, but that's just me.

But I'm sure they probably do better in October.

 

[celluloid]

Yet another completely unfair practice in Hollywood!

But the article I read stated there was a very graphic and gory scene in this one involving a young lady.

Putting the graphic nude gore aside (please!), I'm still baffled they released this dark and brooding horror film in April.

Why not wait until October when the audience mood is ready for dark tales, instead of releasing this at the start of happy, shiny Spring Break Fun-Fun-Fun! season?

Marketing wise it is odd. But October gets so booked and that does not guarantee anymore. Some of the largest horror releases of all time have been out of Haunt season. Also, releasing now gives it the home video shelf life. So in September when people have seen it out for a bit they will be more likely to rent or watch by October.

This one is not hitting the Blumhouse level situation of its budget or promotion though.

For comparison. M3GAN came out right after Christmas. It was PG13 and did bangers for its budget.(ended with over 90 million)
Invisible Man in February. (ended with 70 Million as Covid hit)

For a rated R horror movie to do well in theaters, it better be dang good.

 

[TP2000]

This one is not hitting the Blumhouse level situation of its budget or promotion though.

The first estimates from overseas are now coming in, and The First Omen did about $9 Million in overseas box office this weekend. That puts it at a global weekend total of about $17 Million.

After this underwhelming debut, The First Omen will really need to over-perform globally the next few weeks in order to get to a break even of about $90 Million from the global box office.

At least it will give us something Disney-related to talk about for a few weeks in the Disney Box Office thread!

‘The First Omen’ Beheads Competition But Delivers Underwhelming Global Box Office Debut

Horror prequel The First Omen, starring Nell Tiger Free, has beheaded the competition but underwhelms in its debut weekend at the global box office.

collider.com

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Just saw frozen empire…it was goofy, but enjoyable. Just a popcorn flick…nothing wrong with that.

 

[erasure fan1]

Just saw frozen empire…it was goofy, but enjoyable. Just a popcorn flick…nothing wrong with that.

The question is this. Is everytime something new Ghostbusters related comes out, do we have see the idiots come out and try to convince us Ghostbusters 2016 wasn't a absolute abomination of a film? I saw it when afterlife came out. And now Gamespot has an article, it's time to give Ghostbusters 2016 another chance. Uhhh no, it was bad then and it's worse now. Lol

 

[TP2000]

I'm always in the mood for a horror movie, but that's just me.

But I'm sure they probably do better in October.

I read an article that said The First Omen was supposed to just be a streaming TV movie on Hulu. But after Disney had to scrap Snow White and send it back for rewrites and reshoots and Media Training 101 courses for Miss Zegler, moving Snow White to "2025" instead of March 22nd, 2024, they had nothing planned for theaters this spring. So Disney moved The First Omen into theaters instead of Hulu just to have something, anything.

My question is, if this was so graphically gory that it first received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, how on earth was it going to be on Hulu? My streaming choices trend to the PG and PG-13 only, much like my movie choices, so I guess I had no idea that there were graphically NC-17 type choices on a mainstream service like Hulu. Who knew?! But... yikes.

The First Omen May Be The Most Violent, Transgressive Horror Movie Ever Produced By The Walt Disney Company - SlashFilm

The horror prequel The First Omen is technically a Disney movie, and that's pretty shocking.

www.slashfilm.com

 

[Miss Rori]

Why not wait until October when the audience mood is ready for dark tales, instead of releasing this at the start of happy, shiny Spring Break Fun-Fun-Fun! season?

Likely because starting in September there are a whole bunch of horror and horror-adjacent films hitting the market, including Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Saw XI, a sequel to Smile, Speak No Evil, and Terrifier 3. Even the third Venom movie could be seen as horror-adjacent.

Still, Disney/Fox Searchlight opening a film like this in April, and just as another Catholic-themed horror movie came onto the market, seems like a weird, last-minute choice. (And a waste of surprisingly positive reviews.) I do wonder if stuff like this and the halfhearted Pixar reissue program is an effort by Disney to have something on screens for exhibitors when they had to move so much out of 2024 in the wake of the strikes and whatnot, once they realized that Wish wasn't going to play into the spring Frozen-style.

 

[brideck]

Still, Disney/Fox Searchlight opening a film like this in April, and just as another Catholic-themed horror movie came onto the market, seems like a weird, last-minute choice.

The First Omen had its release date set on Nov 16th, and that press release doesn't say anything about it being intended for streaming, so I don't know that any of these decisions were made last minute. [Compare with The Young Woman and the Sea's announcement.]

Neon didn't even acquire Immaculate until December and set the release date on Jan 25th, so that's good preemptive counterprogramming on their part.

 

[Disney Irish]

I read an article that said The First Omen was supposed to just be a streaming TV movie on Hulu. But after Disney had to scrap Snow White and send it back for rewrites and reshoots and Media Training 101 courses for Miss Zegler, moving Snow White to "2025" instead of March 22nd, 2024, they had nothing planned for theaters this spring. So Disney moved The First Omen into theaters instead of Hulu just to have something, anything.

My question is, if this was so graphically gory that it first received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, how on earth was it going to be on Hulu? My streaming choices trend to the PG and PG-13 only, much like my movie choices, so I guess I had no idea that there were graphically NC-17 type choices on a mainstream service like Hulu. Who knew?! But... yikes.

The First Omen May Be The Most Violent, Transgressive Horror Movie Ever Produced By The Walt Disney Company - SlashFilm

The horror prequel The First Omen is technically a Disney movie, and that's pretty shocking.

www.slashfilm.com

As far as I'm aware First Omen was always meant to be a theatrical release not a streaming movie. I think some have confused that with the fact that its written and directed by a former TV director, Arkasha Stevenson, making their feature film directorial debut with First Omen.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

The question is this. Is everytime something new Ghostbusters related comes out, do we have see the idiots come out and try to convince us Ghostbusters 2016 wasn't a absolute abomination of a film? I saw it when afterlife came out. And now Gamespot has an article, it's time to give Ghostbusters 2016 another chance. Uhhh no, it was bad then and it's worse now. Lol

Not to be confused with the people from the opposite side of the coin who take any opportunity to remind us they hated a movie that came out in 2016.

 

[Disney Irish]

I really think we need to get out of this idea (which has been said MANY times in this and other movie threads) that horror/thriller themed movies only should release during the "spooky season". These type of films have always come out at various times of the year, never just in the "spooky season". For example the original Friday the 13th came out on May 9th in 1980. So this idea really needs to go to the graveyard and die, pun intended.

 

[DKampy]

Because no one watched it…

Try to keep up here. People
Go to see good movies. They don’t spend the time and money to see crap.

Except fast and the furious…those defy common sense

Are you sure about that….I see great movies all the time that no one else watches (The Nice Guys)at the same time I see movies that are not good at all that become blockbusters…looking at you Transformers

 

[Disney Irish]

Are you sure about that….I see great movies all the time that no one else watches (The Nice Guys)at the same time I see movies that are not good at all that become blockbusters…looking at you Transformers

Agreed, just because something became "popular" at the box office doesn't mean it was actually good. And likewise just because something didn't do well at the box office doesn't mean it was bad. Movies are subjective, there is a long list of movies that became popular long after the box office.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Are you sure about that….I see great movies all the time that no one else watches (The Nice Guys)at the same time I see movies that are not good at all that become blockbusters…looking at you Transformers

There is a bit of difference between “indie stories” and wide release, clear the schedule type tentpoles

 

[Farerb]

When I was looking into this First Omen movie, I mistakenly read an article about it and how horrifically gory and disgusting it was in a few nude scenes. It apparently got an NC-17 rating for its horrific gore and nudity content, and they dialed it back ever so slightly to get an R rating.

I've never liked horror movies much, but graphic nudity gore is just a bridge too far for me. I simply won't do it.

Why does every 20th Century or Searchlight movie have to be disgusting nowadays?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Why does every 20th Century or Searchlight movie have to be disgusting nowadays?

Most of Fox has been trash for decades

 

[DKampy]

There is a bit of difference between “indie stories” and wide release, clear the schedule type tentpoles

My example The Nice Guys was not ”indie”…. it was distributed by Warner Brothers… but then again maybe you also consider Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and Iron Man indie

 

[TP2000]

The First Omen had its release date set on Nov 16th, and that press release doesn't say anything about it being intended for streaming, so I don't know that any of these decisions were made last minute. [Compare with The Young Woman and the Sea's announcement.]

The news that The First Omen was originally meant for a Hulu debut as a TV streaming movie came from Variety's article on the weekend box office that was released yesterday.

The reporter and their sources could be wrong obviously, but if you can't trust Variety who can you trust?

"Of course, 20th Century Studios didn’t spend $400 million on “The Omen” rights and tout plans for a new trilogy, like how Universal did with “The Exorcist.” Instead, “First Omen” is modestly budgeted at $30 million (though that’s still somewhat steep for horror — oftentimes a low-risk, high-reward gamble for studios). The film also pivoted from an intended Hulu debut to theatrical after last year’s strikes created a scarcity in features for exhibitors." - Variety, April 6th 2024

Box Office: ‘Godzilla x Kong’ Staying on Top, ‘Monkey Man’ Swings Into Second and ‘The First Omen’ Gets Crossed Up

"Godzilla x Kong" is facing a sharp drop in its second weekend at the box office, but will stay ahead of the openings of "Monkey Man" and "The First Omen."

variety.com

 

[TP2000]

Why does every 20th Century or Searchlight movie have to be disgusting nowadays?

The more I read about The First Omen this weekend, the more I realized it's certainly not my scene, that's for sure. Apparently they think there's an audience for that sort of stuff, but this weekend's underwhelming box office seems to prove otherwise in this case.

I saw The Exorcist in a theater, and remember thinking poor Linda Blair doing that pea soup routine in her bed was tragic. I can't even imagine staying seated in the theater through what was described as happening in The First Omen. Just come find me in the lobby gabbing with the snack bar clerk when it's all over and we're ready to go to Farrell's, please.