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

Wendy Pleakley

Well-Known Member
“Look everybody! Barbie and Super Mario are huge hits! Films don’t need to be based on pre-existing IPs anymore!”

We're going to get a dozen variations on those movies for sure.

Take a popular IP with multi generational appeal that hasn't crossed over into film and make a movie.

Studios just have to be careful they don't overdo it or fail to understand why certain films work. Transformers fits this mold but that series is petering out in at the box office.

Barbie strikes me as similar to the Brady Bunch movies. Respectful of the source material but doesn't take itself too seriously.

There's also no guarantee what will connect. Barbie happened to strike a nerve and has become a cultural moment. with people dressing up and making an event out of it. That won't be simply to replicate, but many will try.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Barbie strikes me as similar to the Brady Bunch movies. Respectful of the source material but doesn't take itself too seriously.

What I find fascinating is that Mattel does not take itself too seriously. Mattel was/is all in on the joke here with this movie, and allowed the movie production to poke fun a bit at Mattel and it's history with Barbie concepts and merchandise.

Can you imagine current-day Disney allowing itself to be poked fun of, laughing at itself, and not take itself so seriously? I can't.

Can you imagine any senior Disney executive in Burbank allowing Will Ferrell to play a bumbling, silly version of themselves? I can't.

Disney could learn a few things from Mattel about letting some air out of their pompousness and self-declared virtuousness.
 

GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
You think its going to do better than Mario? Dunno, we'll see in a couple weeks if this continues up or was just a good opening weekend.
Seeing is believing, but according to MarketWatch:
"“Barbie” has presales surpassing Walt Disney Co.’s DIS, +1.13% “The Little Mermaid,” according to Hickey, with U.S. projections ranging from $90 million to $125 million and global projections of around $165 million." Now to see the opening weekend numbers on Monday thus far the numbers are strong and climbing.
 

dreday3

Well-Known Member
Barbie is special to a lot of us. She was my superhero.

I love all the women (and men) who grew up with Barbie from the 70s and on feeling like this movie was finally made for them. And they came out to support it.

I think this is more of a one of a kind phenomenon, won't be easily replicated.
 

wtyy21

Well-Known Member
“Look everybody! Barbie and Super Mario are huge hits! Films don’t need to be based on pre-existing IPs anymore!”
And then WDAS-made 100th anniversary film Wish hit theaters this November, also the original film. Given the massive promotion of the film, we expected bigger opening weekend for a Disney film this year, even if did not deliver the same number as Super Mario.

I think the top films this year will be Mario, Barbie, Wish. But, Oppenheimer may also be surprise hit this year.
 

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Sure about that?
Yes. I’ve seen Battleship, G.I. Joe (the first and second but not Snake Eyes), all the Resident Evil movies, the original Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, a bunch of other video game movies, etc.

A poster here invoking the 90s is correct, but in the sense that the 90s were chock full of awful (often winkingly self aware, just like Barbie) IP adaptations, largely of old television shows. Barbie may invoke the best of the 90s, but the imitators will remind folks why no one was very sorry to see them go.

Post-2000 superhero movies, particularly the MCU and Batman films, have been astoundingly well received, both critically and popularly, compared to the IP films of an earlier era. A lot of folks have tremendously rose-tinted glasses when remembering the popular cinema landscape of the 80s and 90s.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
You think its going to do better than Mario? Dunno, we'll see in a couple weeks if this continues up or was just a good opening weekend.

My gut tells me Barbie is going to do even better than Mario at the domestic box office. :greedy:

But what I don't know about is how well Barbie will do overseas. Isn't she really just an American thing? Do British and French and Japanese and Australian girls play with Barbies when they are young? I've got no knowledge of that, but I'd be surprised to learn that Mattel sells Barbies globally with the same success they have in the USA with her. Who knows?

That's the problem with Little Mermaid, she did okay in the USA, but was a bomb overseas. Mario did twice the box office domestically that Mermaid did, but then soared an extra $200 Million overseas above its already huge domestic box office.

Is Barbie just going to be an American phenomenon, or is this something audiences in Europe and East Asia will also go see?

Mario Vs. Mermaid.jpg
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Seeing is believing, but according to MarketWatch:
"“Barbie” has presales surpassing Walt Disney Co.’s DIS, +1.13% “The Little Mermaid,” according to Hickey, with U.S. projections ranging from $90 million to $125 million and global projections of around $165 million." Now to see the opening weekend numbers on Monday thus far the numbers are strong and climbing.
Yeah it appears to have a great opening weekend, no doubt about it. Its the "legs" that are the question, will it continue to do well week after week, only time will tell. I'm not betting against it at this point, but we've seen how the year has been and it hasn't been pretty for a lot of movies. We'll see how Barbie does next weekend, and the weekends after that.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
My gut tells me Barbie is going to do even better than Mario at the domestic box office. :greedy:

But what I don't know about is how well Barbie will do overseas. Isn't she really just an American thing? Do British and French and Japanese and Australian girls play with Barbies when they are young? I've got no knowledge of that, but I'd be surprised to learn that Mattel sells Barbies globally with the same success they have in the USA with her. Who knows?

That's the problem with Little Mermaid, she did okay in the USA, but was a bomb overseas. Mario did twice the box office domestically that Mermaid did, but then soared an extra $200 Million overseas above its already huge domestic box office.

Is Barbie just going to be an American phenomenon, or is this something audiences in Europe and East Asia will also go see?

View attachment 732168
We'll have to see. I've seen the movie, and its good but not great in my opinion. The middle for me just dragged on a bit....

The thing with Mario is it has wide appeal around the world. Barbie while it has a great footprint around the world, don't know how significant she is outside the US.

And again the question will be the "legs", not of any of the stars in Barbie (which you'll understand that joke when you see the movie), but the movie "legs" in the weeks to come. We'll see how it does.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
I don’t love the idea of Barbie 2: Back to Barbieland (felt Barbie 1 was enough of a mixed bag)

The story Barbie tells doesn't lend itself to a sequel anyway...unless it's about Ken's journey of self-discovery...or a prequel about Skipper.

But I fully expect WB/Discovery to push through and make Barbie 3: The Search for Spock

if Disney would hire talented filmmakers and let them do their thing

They do this, then get cold feet halfway through production and either fire the director/writer or make changes in the edit bay.
 

TalkingHead

Well-Known Member
The story Barbie tells doesn't lend itself to a sequel anyway...unless it's about Ken's journey of self-discovery...
It’s coming after this weekend. Biggest consensus takeaway is Gosling walks away with the movie, plus the ending leaves his character is a very weird unresolved place. The human/toy logic of the movie is so inconsequential it won’t hold them back from doing whatever they want with Robbie’s character. Toy Story this is not by a long shot.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
We'll have to see. I've seen the movie, and its good but not great in my opinion. The middle for me just dragged on a bit...

Nope. I have an odd ability to sense pop-culture phenoms, which is why I pegged Barbie the hit of the summer, if not decade, a month ago.

This movie does not need to be Doctor Zhivago or Gone With The Wind as a work of cinematic art for the ages. It just needs to be Barbie.

And when I just went to Google "Barbie" to get the latest news link I put below, the entire Google screen turned pink and had pink sparkly Mattel-font things all over it. Try it. Even Google knows this movie is the thing.

Barbie is huge. Maybe not Star Wars huge, but at least E.T. huge. This one is going to rewire Hollywood for at least the next few years.

Also, I went to dinner with old San Diego friends tonight. We talked Barbie plans for a few minutes during the first course. The table next to us was talking about it. Our waitress overheard us and gushed about it and her plans to see it again.

Barbie is huge. Disney could only wish to have something this big about now. ;)


P.S. I am definitely not a square, I just have to wait for the family to arrive next week before we go see it together.
 
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Disney Irish

Premium Member
Nope. I have an odd ability to sense pop-culture phenoms, which is why I pegged Barbie the hit of the summer, if not decade, a month ago.

This movie does not need to be Doctor Zhivago or Gone With The Wind as a work of cinematic art for the ages. It just needs to be Barbie.

And when I just went to Google "Barbie" to get the latest news link I put below, the entire Google screen turned pink and had pink sparkly Mattel-font things all over it. Try it. Even Google knows this movie is the thing.

Barbie is huge. Maybe not Star Wars huge, but at least E.T. huge. This one is going to rewire Hollywood for at least the next few years.

Also, I went to dinner with old San Diego friends tonight. We talked Barbie plans for a few minutes during the first course. The table next to us was talking about it. Our waitress overheard us and gushed about it and her plans to see it again.

Barbie is huge. Disney could only wish to have something this big about now. ;)


P.S. I am definitely not a square, I just have to wait for the family to arrive next week before we go see it together.
And in any other year I might agree with you. But we've seen this hasn't been a normal year. Movies that should be huge audience draws long term, such as MI:7, just aren't. And movies that start slow end up finding an audience and become long term draws, budgets aside, like TLM and Elemental.

So yeah its having a great opening weekend, but we'll see how it does down the road after a couple weeks. Barbie might bring in truck loads of cash week after week until fall with repeat viewings, or it might fizzle out after the 2nd or 3rd weekend having made all its money opening weekend when the initial Barbenheimer buzz dies down.

Only time will tell, but I'm happy its doing well so far. And I hope you enjoy your showing next week.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
And in any other year I might agree with you. But we've seen this hasn't been a normal year. Movies that should be huge audience draws long term, such as MI:7, just aren't. And movies that start slow end up finding an audience and become long term draws, budgets aside, like TLM and Elemental.

All three of those films have lost money. For Disney and Pixar, they lost huge amounts of money combined.

Barbie is going to be a huge success, both culturally and financially.

Don't forget, I was outed here as the Internet's first influencer and I can make or break anyone or anything.

Barbie is huge. I have deemed it so. :cool:
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
All three of those films have lost money. For Disney and Pixar, they lost huge amounts of money combined.

Barbie is going to be a huge success, both culturally and financially.

Don't forget, I was outed here as the Internet's first influencer and I can make or break anyone or anything.

Barbie is huge. I have deemed it so. :cool:
I'm not doubting its ability to turn a profit, it most likely will. What I'm saying lets wait and see on is your claim that it'll beat Mario domestically. It would have to do more than $574M in the US to beat Mario. I'm not saying it won't, I'm just saying lets wait and see 2nd and 3rd weekend drops.
 

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Mattel has already announced they have plans for more of their products to get the film treatment including Hot Wheels…Barbie just opened a can of worms
The entire stated point of Barbie was to make Mattel the next Marvel. That won't work in the long term, but the massive success of this weekend guarantees they'll try for a while.
 

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