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

[CinematicFusion]

The industry eviscerated Zalev over this. Financially if pre/post theatrical is covering additional spend beyond production, they are generally getting ahead of an outright write off. It's a pretty bad business move unless you can stop a production a lot earlier.

I won't outright lie and say this movie has blockbuster potential, but it could recoup costs if the public likes it. We also have to acknowledge this is a global movie and most of the reason people really think it is going to fail (controversial statements from its lead) are going to be completely missed by the broader audience, let alone the International one.

I'm not trying to frame this as a total defence. More that I just think 500M on this production seems a lot more likely than 75-100M. Which is a benchmark it would need to undershoot to have been better written off.

Most of the controversy happened over a year ago, so the question now is… how will these factors impact the film’s reception and success in March? Honestly… I have no idea, have to wait and see.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

In another example of Universal's aggressive PVOD strategy, Nosferatu is now available to buy/rent 4 weeks after its theatrical release. People who buy the digital copy can watch the extended cut not in theaters.

 

[BrianLo]

I imagine there was at least a few weeks in 2023 when they considered that; write it off, send it to Disney+ with a whimper, and pretend it all never happened.

A true write off means the film never sees the light of day, including streaming. It’s essentially just thrown out. Obviously very hard to make that math work once it’s made.

Very good point on the overseas market. Is Snow White a widely anticipated movie in Europe and Asia? I won't pretend to know that

Me neither. The only thing I’ll add is apparently Disney felt Snow White was known enough in China to dedicate several SDL attractions to it, which probably speaks to some awareness going on in the broader Asia market.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Honestly while I don't believe there were major rewrites and reshoots that changed the whole concept of the film, in the end who cares? As long as the end result is a watchable film I don't care if they had to rewrite every line from the script or throw out the script completely and reshoot every minute of film. Everything else is just commentary for those that haven't liked the project for one reason or another anyways.

The funny thing is my comment was meant to say basically the same thing, if they can overcome all the negativity surrounding this, make a good movie in the end, and break even they deserve a massive bonus. People just ignored that message to get upset at the language I used to suggest they’d changed the film, which all movies do with reshoots and in editing.

If this thing breaks even, or better yet makes money, it’ll be a massive Cinderella story (forgive the Disney pun).

 

[erasure fan1]

Honestly while I don't believe there were major rewrites and reshoots that changed the whole concept of the film, in the end who cares? As long as the end result is a watchable film I don't care if they had to rewrite every line from the script or throw out the script completely and reshoot every minute of film. Everything else is just commentary for those that haven't liked the project for one reason or another anyways.

I completely agree with the who cares aspect as well. Rogue one was 80 some percent re-done and it turned out great in my opinion. In the end if it's good, I'm on board.

I will say that when someone says the film did go through major reshoots, the same thing applies. Who cares? Either way neither side knows for sure what actually happened. The reason it's talked about is because it's a discussion forum. I know you don't like the term red flag. But these things we're talking about could be relevant to how the film does. So from that aspect it's worth discussing. Otherwise what are any of us really doing?

 

[DKampy]

Snow White was delayed in the midst of the dual strikes….for all we know it was due to reshoots(which nearly all big budget movies have figured from the beginning)….perhaps after that they needed to find the availability to promote the film….That’s what I always figured anyway…. Elio was also announced on the same. Date that it was delayed a year as well