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

[easyrowrdw]

What frustrates me about the whole ordeal is the fans mocking Zegler over her acting ability and claiming Gadot is better. I think criticizing Zegler's statements and personality is fair game, but I'm sorry, I'm not going to play along with this alternate reality where we pretend she's a bad actress and that Gadot is the next Meryl Streep. Clearly, not enough people saw Spielberg's version of West Side Story.

West Side Story made $76 million worldwide (on a $100 million budget). So, I’d say you’re right.

I never saw it either so I guess I’m part of the problem lol

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Avatar alone will help Disny fly past the competition

Likely true, Avatar is a crazy outlier though, with a $400 million budget the first billion will go to breaking even, then since it’s a joint venture with Cameron Disney (Fox) only gets about half the remaining profits, which insanely enough could still lead to as much as a billion in profits for Disney alone.

Love him or hate him Cameron is a money printing machine.

 

[DKampy]

People: No one cares about what celebrities say

Same people: can you believe the awful comments from Rachel Zegler

Personally I find the whole thing ridiculous..

 

[Disney Irish]

Likely true, Avatar is a crazy outlier though, with a $400 million budget the first billion will go to breaking even, then since it’s a joint venture with Cameron Disney (Fox) only gets about half the remaining profits, which insanely enough could still lead to as much as a billion in profits for Disney alone.

Love him or hate him Cameron is a money printing machine.

The budgets are actually shared across multiple films as they've been shot back-to-back.

Both 3 and 4 are reported right now at a budget of $250M a piece, with 2 doing the heavy lifting at $350M.

 

[erasure fan1]

Again, these are "early reactions" not reviews, and they are from a limited pool of people that Disney allowed to see the film. Think more along the lines of influencers than film critics. Disney allowed people to attend the premiere that it felt would be more inclined to give the movie a positive social media reaction.

Agreed. I would expect this first round of reviews for it to be extremely positive. Campea is very rarely against Disney. As I'd guess most of the first look reviewers are. So I would take it with a big fat grain of salt. Hey, it might be good. But like you, I've been bamboozled before. That's why I just wait for streaming.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Again, these are "early reactions" not reviews, and they are from a limited pool of people that Disney allowed to see the film. Think more along the lines of influencers than film critics. Disney allowed people to attend the premiere that it felt would be more inclined to give the movie a positive social media reaction.

Now the movie may very well turn out to be good, and the reviews might end up surprisingly positive. But I've been burned too many times in the past by bad movies with "rotten" Rotten Tomatoes scores that initially had a wave of positive "early reactions" that I will always take those early reactions with a grain of salt.

This is why I typically wait for the audience score over early previews and critics, unfortunately I think the audience score is going to be worthless on this one due to trolling.

I’m sure some of my friends will see it so they’ll ultimately be my guide on this one.

 

[Ghost93]

West Side Story made $76 million worldwide (on a $100 million budget). So, I’d say you’re right.

I never saw it either so I guess I’m part of the problem lol

It's fine if few saw the movie, people like what they like. What's not fine is people making definitive statements on her acting ability when they've never even seen her breakout performance.

There is nothing that annoys me more as a film fan than when people take a strong stand on a movie or actor they've never actually watched or are not familiar with. After the recent Oscars there were a lot of people angry at Mikey Madison winning Best Actress for her work in Anora over Demi Moore in the Substance, even though the vast majority of the people complaining never actually watched Anora and were in no position to be making an objective claim over which performance was better.

 

[brideck]

It's fine if few the movie, people like what they like. What's not fine is people making definitive statements on her acting ability when they've never even seen her breakout performance.

And it's not even just that one -- although yes, more people should see Spielberg's West Side Story -- she was also really good in 2023's Hunger Games installment in a very different role (sure it involved some singing, too, but the acting required was very different).

 

[Farerb]

What frustrates me about the whole ordeal is the fans mocking Zegler over her acting ability and claiming Gadot is better. I think criticizing Zegler's statements and personality is fair game, but I'm sorry, I'm not going to play along with this alternate reality where we pretend she's a bad actress and that Gadot is the next Meryl Streep. Clearly, not enough people saw Spielberg's version of West Side Story.

Zegler has a good voice but she's no Meryl Streep either. She was only okay in Spielberg's mediocre West Side Story. The lack of chemistry between Tony and Maria is also on her, not just Ansel Elgort.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

 

[Ghost93]

View attachment 848727

Dune Part 2 is a much better movie than Mufasa, but glad to see Mufasa prove that movies can still have legs in this day and age even after a weak opening weekend.

 

[DisneyWarrior27]

Looks like the new full trailer for Pixar’s Elio is dropping this week, allegedly today.

 

[Ayla]

Zegler has a good voice but she's no Meryl Streep either. She was only okay in Spielberg's mediocre West Side Story. The lack of chemistry between Tony and Maria is also on her, not just Ansel Elgort.

C'mon, now. Meryl Streep wasn't Meryl Streep when she was 23 years old, either. Trying to compare a 23 year old relatively new actress to someone who has been doing it for 50 years is ridiculous.

 

[Farerb]

C'mon, now. Meryl Streep wasn't Meryl Streep when she was 23 years old, either. Trying to compare a 23 year old relatively new actress to someone who has been doing it for 50 years is ridiculous.

Will I be able to say that in 6 years after she becomes obscure again and isn't nominated for any Academy Awards?

 

[Ghost93]

C'mon, now. Meryl Streep wasn't Meryl Streep when she was 23 years old, either. Trying to compare a 23 year old relatively new actress to someone who has been doing it for 50 years is ridiculous.

Streep got her first Oscar nomination at 29 for The Deer Hunter, and she won the following year for Kramer vs Kramer.

That being said, I disagree that Zegler and Elgort didn't have chemistry. I also think Elgort was good in the movie, although not as good costars like Zegler, Mike Faist and Ariana DeBose. I think the controversy surrounding Elgort's dating life and the accusations of assault impacted how people felt about his performance.

 

[Trauma]

This is why I typically wait for the audience score over early previews and critics, unfortunately I think the audience score is going to be worthless on this one due to trolling.

I’m sure some of my friends will see it so they’ll ultimately be my guide on this one.

I never look at critic reviews. The audience scores are always far more reliable. Although in this case it could have 100% audience score and I would skip it.

 

[Prince-1]

Zegler has a good voice but she's no Meryl Streep either. She was only okay in Spielberg's mediocre West Side Story. The lack of chemistry between Tony and Maria is also on her, not just Ansel Elgort.

Wait, are you really comparing Zegler to Meryl Streep?? One is at the relative start of her career and the other has been acting for decades.

 

[Farerb]

Wait, are you really comparing Zegler to Meryl Streep?? One is at the relative start of her career and the other has been acting for decades.

I'm not the one who started comparing actresses to Meryl Streep and Meryl Streep was literally at the start of her career when she was regularly nominated for Academy Awards for more than a decade.

 

[LittleBuford]

C'mon, now. Meryl Streep wasn't Meryl Streep when she was 23 years old, either. Trying to compare a 23 year old relatively new actress to someone who has been doing it for 50 years is ridiculous.

I'm not sure why the comparison was made anyway (it seems a bit random and irrelevant), but I don't think its unreasonable to deem Streep the superior actor. That's not a slight on Zegler; few actors can match Streep in range and talent.

 

[LittleBuford]

That's it?

She only needs to release a TikTok saying "Sorry you guys were offended!"? You wouldn't try to quantify how badly that idiotic behavior by your employee damaged your company's brand and product line she was representing? I would.

At the very least, I would place her on an immediate leave of absence while I tried to assess how bad the damage was that she had caused to the company's sales and the brand image. Because there's a lot of other employees who don't do idiotic TikTok stunts who are depending on working for a profitable company to support their families.

I'd imagine within two weeks time I'd have made that assessment, had my T's crossed by HR and my I's dotted by Legal, and she wouldn't be working for my company after that kind of bizarrely idiotic public stunt.

My initial reply to you was deleted, so let me try again:

Yes, that's it. I'm not sure what else Disney could have done anyway. As has been pointed out to you multiple times, Zegler is not a regular employee, but an actor under contract who had already completed the job. There were no practicable measures the company could have taken against her at that point.

She issued an apology that proved insufficient to the very people demanding she say sorry. It's almost as if they're determined to keep the outrage going regardless of what she does.

I don't put much stock in what celebrities say. I'm much more concerned about the words and deeds of those who have an actual impact on our lives.