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

[BrianLo]

As Comcast has held strong to their 45day release strategy for years now (with rare exceptions, though none come to mind) I think its safe to assume (at least for now) they they see no issue despite what some here think. I think them releasing numbers was to assure those watching on and second guessing that strategy that they still feel confident in that decision.

Certainly. If they don’t change strategies next year, I’m pretty happy to admit they truly did not think they made a mistake.

The PVOD numbers I have no idea of what is or isn’t good. If they act like box office and have a long tail or are front loaded with first run contracts with services, airlines, hotels etc. The only numbers I can attest is that some of the bigger movies have been doing 150M in their home window per deadline post pandemic.

I suspect deadline will provide some commentary in the spring and then we’ll see if executives double down next year.

 

[TP2000]

Hiya, gang! I hope everyone had a fun weekend, although as a former SoCal'er I had to turn off the TV. I have enough incompetence in my life as it is (See: failing tennis game), so I don't need to watch another news conference from LA for awhile.

Here's the final recap from this weekend's box office. Nothing earth shattering, but our three Disney films keep plugging along slowly yet effectively. How many weeks until Snow White opens?

The Numbers - Weekend Box Office Chart for March 14, 2025

Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for the weekend of March 14, 2025

thenumbers.com

 

[TP2000]

The budgets for these big tent pole movies are going to have to come down considerably.

No kidding. Meanwhile... have you seen the offerings for Disneyland's 70th this year? Old parades and old shows brought out of the warehouse. Plus two closed theaters, and some bunting for the Castle and the tram loading area. Yay?

Mufasa cost 200 Million??? She Hulk cost 25 Million an episode??

Everything Disney does seems to have bloated budgets?????!!!!???

Is Disney doing some money laundering???

While I doubt there's anything truly criminal going on, there's definitely some shady business happening in Burbank and Glendale.

Bloated budgets, overpaid execs, entire cubicle armies "working from home", lotso perks for everyone, etc. And once a month, when someone does something entirely predictable and socially acceptable, there's a party in the conference room where they announce that person was "Stunning And Brave!" for doing... predictable, socially acceptable things.

 

[Disney Irish]

Hiya, gang! I hope everyone had a fun weekend, although as a former SoCal'er I had to turn off the TV. I have enough incompetence in my life as it is (See: failing tennis game), so I don't need to watch another news conference from LA for awhile.

Here's the final recap from this weekend's box office. Nothing earth shattering, but our three Disney films keep plugging along slowly yet effectively. How many weeks until Snow White opens?

View attachment 837067

The Numbers - Weekend Box Office Chart for March 14, 2025

Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for the weekend of March 14, 2025

thenumbers.com

Nothing earth shattering other than Mufasa likely moving into profitability after this past weekend, and Moana inching ever closer to the $1B mark with less than $10M left to go.

 

[Disney Irish]

No kidding. Meanwhile... have you seen the offerings for Disneyland's 70th this year? Old parades and old shows brought out of the warehouse. Plus two closed theaters, and some bunting for the Castle and the tram loading area. Yay?

Nothing to do with the box office or the budget of the movies. If Disney wanted to do something substantial for DL 70th the amount they spend on Mufasa or any other movie wouldn't prevent that. Stop conflating things together.

While I doubt there's anything truly criminal going on, there's definitely some shady business happening in Burbank and Glendale.

Bloated budgets, overpaid execs, entire cubicle armies "working from home", lotso perks for everyone, etc. And once a month, when someone does something entirely predictable and socially acceptable, there's a party in the conference room where they announce that person was "Stunning And Brave!" for doing... predictable, socially acceptable things.

Have any proof of such claims?

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

But what did they lose?

$26M in one day, $70M for the week? Many films in theaters would kill for that.

Some of these are big fans just buying it, as has been mentioned. Some are people who were not going to the theater anyway. Strike while the hype is hot. The numbers are impressive IMO.

If you were going to the theater next week for the sing-along version with your friends, and you bought it, you’re still going. If you had no intention of going to the theater, you bought it. That’s extra sales. The theater numbers can’t hold up forever, and aren’t more important than overall sales.

Yep, Wicked didn't see a theatrical drop off beyond the norm when the digital release happened. I don't see how there was any downside.

The people making these decisions have access to information and numbers we don't. I'm sure there are stats they have showing pros and cons of quick digital releases.

Potential benefits may include higher sales or being able to charge a higher price because of the "still in theaters, own it today" marketing. They probably got a lot of people who were looking for something to watch NYE as well.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Have any proof of such claims?

Can’t be proven thats what makes it such a great scheme. As I said, it’s amazing Wicked can be made for 145M and Mufasa cost 200M along with the many, many other Disney productions with bloated budgets.

When I went to look up Wicked I totally expected it to be over 200M since Mufasa cots 200M to see Wicked cost only 145M and made in the US, that surprised me and made me think something fishy is going on in the house of mouse.

But you are right, it’s pure speculation on my part.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

Can’t be proven thats what makes it such a great scheme. As I said, it’s amazing Wicked can be made for 145M and Mufasa cost 200M along with the many, many other Disney productions with bloated budgets.

When I went to look up Wicked I totally expected it to be over 200M since Mufasa cots 200M to see Wicked cost only 145M and made in the US, that surprised me and made me think something fishy is going on in the house of mouse.

But you are right, it’s pure speculation on my part.

Articles have been posted on this.

Some studios factor the costs to run their studio in the film budgets. For example, a movie cost includes day to day maintenance, janitorial, support staff, and what not.

Some only report the costs that went directly into making the movie.

It definitely accounts for some discrepancy.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Articles have been posted on this.

Some studios factor the costs to run their studio in the film budgets. For example, a movie cost includes day to day maintenance, janitorial, support staff, and what not.

Some only report the costs that went directly into making the movie.

It definitely accounts for some discrepancy.

Indeed, Pixar has said that their cost per movie involves running the whole physical studio, not just the salaries of the animators.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Articles have been posted on this.

Some studios factor the costs to run their studio in the film budgets. For example, a movie cost includes day to day maintenance, janitorial, support staff, and what not.

Some only report the costs that went directly into making the movie.

It definitely accounts for some discrepancy.

Oh we suspect Disney includes all costs, even special projects
JK

 

[Disstevefan1]

Indeed, Pixar has said that their cost per movie involves running the whole physical studio, not just the salaries of the animators.

And don't forget those special secret projects JK. It just shows the "Budgeted" number is even more meaningless in either direction -

The "Budgeted" number means different things for different companies
We have no idea of actual production costs and if they went over the "Budgeted" number.
We have no idea what the actual marketing costs were on any movie.

I am realizing why Disney just puts out whatever they want and whatever happens, happens.

Mufasa was fine, but Wicked was really great and I need to watch it again.

 

[Disney Irish]

Can’t be proven thats what makes it such a great scheme. As I said, it’s amazing Wicked can be made for 145M and Mufasa cost 200M along with the many, many other Disney productions with bloated budgets.

When I went to look up Wicked I totally expected it to be over 200M since Mufasa cots 200M to see Wicked cost only 145M and made in the US, that surprised me and made me think something fishy is going on in the house of mouse.

But you are right, it’s pure speculation on my part.

Its not a "scheme" as if there is some stuff being account for that shouldn't be there, Hollywood accounting has always been an unknown by those outside the industry. As others have said different studios account for different things in their film budgets, so its not a uniform figure. But rest assure there is no malfeasance going on, outside investors wouldn't invest in such "schemes" if there was some illegal or wrong stuff being accounted for in film budgets. They wouldn't want to risk their investment if such a practice was being done. Not to mention that Hollywood insiders would have blown the lid off such a "scheme" decades ago if there was something bad going on.

Also different movies are going to cost differently, an all CG movie is going to cost more than a movie done with fairly unknown actors on practical sets. So you can't look at one movie and say "Hey they did it for $55M less so Disney must be hiding something in their budgets they shouldn't be". I know we like to compare things around here because it makes things easier for us, but really there is no comparison in a lot of these movies.

So basically there is nothing "fishy" going on with Disney budgets.

Also as I mentioned, Wicked Part 2 when it comes out this year will have cost ~$205M. So are you going to blame Uni for some accounting "scheme" because it cost $60M more than Part 1 or does that only apply to Disney and their films?

 

[Disstevefan1]

So basically there is nothing "fishy" going on with Disney budgets.

Whatever you say.

 

[Disney Irish]

Whatever you say.

You missed my edit, but...

Also as I mentioned, Wicked Part 2 when it comes out this year will have cost ~$205M. So are you going to blame Uni for some accounting "scheme" because it cost ~$60M more than Part 1 or does that only apply to Disney and their films?

 

[Disstevefan1]

You missed my edit, but...

Also as I mentioned, Wicked Part 2 when it comes out this year will have cost ~$205M. So are you going to blame Uni for some accounting "scheme" because it cost ~$60M more than Part 1 or does that only apply to Disney and their films?

No, because Wicked part one looked like it cost at least 250M, but what do I know...
I guess CGI lions are expensive too...

 

[Disney Irish]

No, because Wicked part one looked like it cost at least 250M, but what do I know...
I guess CGI lions are expensive too...

Well the entire Wicked series costs ~$350M, so they spent a whole lot for both movies (as mentioned the most Uni has ever spent on a single project). They just put most of that cost into the second film. And so if the first one looks like it cost more, well thank the second film for that. Or more precisely that Jon Chu was more frugal in the first one so he could spend more on the second one.

CG animation is expensive due to all the animators, software costs, support people, etc., needed to create the CG. Its again why Pixar movies tend to be more expensive compared to their peers due to all the other costs associated with running the studio needed to support the film production being added into the budget.

None of that means that either Uni or Disney had some accounting scheme going on in order to "pad" the budget to hide some "bad" stuff.

 

[Disstevefan1]

None of that means that either Uni or Disney had some accounting scheme going on in order to "pad" the budget to hide some "bad" stuff.

Whatever you say.

And I never claimed that Universal was padding the budget.

 

[BrianLo]

Mufasa cots 200M

Setting aside that both wicked movies average out to 175 with some cost savings with a sequentially filmed production… why does Mufasa seem expensive to you?

200M for a pure CGI film actually strikes me as reasonable for Dis. I would have guessed at 250 with no fore knowledge. Mufasa isn’t a film that screams cheap, quite the opposite.


The only production I have a hard time understanding how it burnt through cash as of late would be Acolyte.

 

[BrianLo]

I think there’s a very interesting discussion on franchises and tent poles… but this has been Iger’s strategy since like 2010. I can pull up posts predicting the wheels would come off dating back a decade ago with his lean + tentpole strategy. It’s very different than Eisner.

Is it a good strategy? Many have argued otherwise, but it has basically worked for 14 of 15 years now. Disney continues to rule the box office. Eisner’s singles and doubles fell apart on the other hand.

 

[Disney Irish]

Setting aside that both wicked movies average out to 175 with some cost savings with a sequentially filmed production… why does Mufasa seem expensive to you?

200M for a pure CGI film actually strikes me as reasonable for Dis. I would have guessed at 250 with no fore knowledge. Mufasa isn’t a film that screams cheap, quite the opposite.


The only production I have a hard time understanding how it burnt through cash as of late would be Acolyte.

And given that TLK cost $260M back in 2019 you’d be right to think that. That is why this whole discussion is silly, they actually cut costs and are somehow now running some embezzlement scheme.