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

[TP2000]

For some reason, Gal just got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - prematurely, IMO.

Have you ever been to Hollywood and seen the blocks after blocks of stars? People no one has ever heard of have stars on Hollywood Blvd. The handprints at Grauman's Chinese are relatively exclusive, the sidewalk stars are not.

I just Googled, and there are over 2,800 stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. So Ms. Gadot certainly qualifies.

So its not as prestigious in my opinion as it once was. Not that she doesn't deserve it, but thought I should put it into perspective.

I honestly don't think it was ever truly prestigious. It might have been the first few years, when they were still installing them daily. But by the 1970's they already had a bunch of people you'd never heard of, or had no idea what they did.

When they're giving stars on Hollywood Blvd. to Alvin & The Chimpmunks, you have to question the whole thing.

Most of the people screaming about her comments now were utterly silent during months of racially-motivated attacks against her, because a significant portion of the population openly enjoys cruelty but refuses to accept any criticism.

Your posts entertain the heck out of me! Your world seems so bleak and scary, and yet so firmly entrenched in your mind; a world of Millions of people who "openly enjoys cruelty" and is all ruled over by "the country's most powerful people" who operate a well orchestrated "hate network" to instruct us miserables how to think and act in the most cruel and mean and immoral ways possible.

It's just fascinating to consider how it all works in your mind, but it's also entertaining as all heck to get a peek at!

Luckily, things certainly look and feel far more sunshiny and good on my end of reality.

Yeah sure at Disney Springs, not a surprise. How’s it doing in Jacksonville?

Here you go, in Jacksonville's popular Cinemark location tomorrow at 7:30pm. This isn't surprising at this point...

 

[Trauma]

Im at least seeing more seats booked on Friday than Thursday.

I think the weekends are usually busier than Thursday.

 

[DKampy]

For those checking random theaters… did you check those same theaters during other big blockbusters to compare and contrast the availability of seats. I have checked my local theater with other big movies for Sundays since that is our usual film going day…as it is the one day my wife and I both have a day off..And it is usually sparse for seats on Thursday…especially when the big movies are on several screens… then I will check a Saturday night and the theater will be crowded…. I have to buy tickets immediately to make sure I get 2 seats together

 

[Trauma]

For those checking random theaters… did you check those same theaters during other big blockbusters to compare and contrast the availability of seats. I have checked my local theater with other big movies for Sundays since that is our usual film going day…as it is the one day my wife and I both have a day off..And it is usually sparse for seats on Thursday…especially when the big movies are on several screens… then I will check a Saturday night and the theater will be crowded…. I have to buy tickets immediately to make sure I get 2 seats together

It doesn’t matter much now. It will all be over soon and we can move on to something worth looking forward to. (thank god )

Stitch

 

[Casper Gutman]

So because Mackie is captain america they went after him because of race? But race wasn't a thing when he was falcon and everyone loved him? I'm guessing that's what you mean by specific reasons. I don't think the vast majority of people were looking for anything with Mackie except making him Cap wasn't what people wanted. I'm sure for some race was the issue. There's intolerant people in the world, and there always will be. Yea people jumped the gun with not america comment. It was poorly worded. But that's died down fo the most part.

That's true, and it happens often. Gunns jokes didn't spark outrage until 10yrs later when someone dragged it out to create a problem. This isn't just a Zegler thing as some like to make it seem. Gunn is a white male, and he wasn't exempt. And there's plenty of examples of the same thing happening. Months/years later things are brought up just to create a ruckus.

Who “dragged” the Gunn thing out and why?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

For those checking random theaters… did you check those same theaters during other big blockbusters to compare and contrast the availability of seats. I have checked my local theater with other big movies for Sundays since that is our usual film going day…as it is the one day my wife and I both have a day off..And it is usually sparse for seats on Thursday…especially when the big movies are on several screens… then I will check a Saturday night and the theater will be crowded…. I have to buy tickets immediately to make sure I get 2 seats together

The only time I look at seat presales is when I’m buying tickets for a massive blockbuster like an Avengers film (that may sell out) or when I’m looking out of curiosity for this forum.

Which probably just makes the sales look worse because I’m used to seeing near sellouts.

As I said in my first post if I saw the current seating chart I wouldn’t bother to pre buy anyway, I’d just show up and buy tickets at the theater.

 

[coffeefan]

 

[Trauma]

Of course race wasn’t an issue when the African-American actor played an “African-American sidekick” role from the comics. It became an issue when he took on the leading role that awful people felt had to be a very particular race. If Bucky had become Cap, do you think there would have been any backlash? Really?

Who “dragged” the Gunn thing out and why?

But African Americans did not show up in numbers for Cap like they did Panther.

That little fact doesn’t neatly fit into the narrative your trying to build.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Hope yet for Coyote vs Acme

‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Rescued After Warner Bros. Axes Finished Film

More than a year after Warner Bros. shelved "Coyote vs. Acme" for tax incentives, the Looney Tunes-inspired film is close to finding a new home.

variety.com

 

[Casper Gutman]

But African Americans did not show up in numbers for Cap like they did Panther.

That little fact doesn’t neatly fit into the narrative your trying to build.

What does this have to do with the historical motivation of the mobs attacking Gunn, Zegler, and Mackie? It’s completely irrelevant.

 

[Tha Realest]

For those checking random theaters… did you check those same theaters during other big blockbusters to compare and contrast the availability of seats. I have checked my local theater with other big movies for Sundays since that is our usual film going day…as it is the one day my wife and I both have a day off..And it is usually sparse for seats on Thursday…especially when the big movies are on several screens… then I will check a Saturday night and the theater will be crowded…. I have to buy tickets immediately to make sure I get 2 seats together

yes, that’s a thing many people have done time and time again on these pages, for multiple movies (Disney and non-Disney)

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I have never bought movie tickets more than an hour or two in advance on the day of.

I wait to see where I can get a spot away from people!

 

[brideck]

But African Americans did not show up in numbers for Cap like they did Panther.

That little fact doesn’t neatly fit into the narrative your trying to build.

The Black Panther movies are very much marketed toward a black audience, featuring a nearly all-black cast and a distinct Afro-Futurism vibe. The new Cap was marketed to general audiences as a run-of-the-mill political thriller with some superheroics that just happens to feature a black actor at its head. The marketing was pretty specifically trying to downplay that aspect of it. So of course you're seeing what you're seeing in the audience makeup.

 

[easyrowrdw]

I don’t find the reaction to those comments at all proportionate. Indeed, the vitriol was bizarre at best and unhinged at worst. I am someone who cares passionately about the original film; that doesn’t give me the right to lose all reason when someone criticises it.

What do you think a proportionate response would be for someone who thinks her comments on the original movie are totally off base?

I haven’t seen many responses to her comments that fit your description but we might just have different frames of reference.

 

[Tha Realest]

Anything Disney - good or bad - is heightened within the media. It is one of the largest and most expansive media companies around. Its live action remakes had generally expected to be billion dollar earners. Until that point, Snow White - both the foundational Princess of the company and its most significant film - had yet to be remade.

So you combine all that with the lead actress giving an early insight into the production which seemed to suggest the creators weren’t too reverential of the source material, to the point of criticizing it (whether you happen to agree with those criticisms or not) and that’s a recipe for a media maelstrom. Keep in mind, little had been publicly shared about this production at that time other than some of the creators involved, so there was a relative vacuum in terms of news on this project. So it had the added bonus of being something of a first impression formed on this production.

 

[Chi84]

Isn’t a lot of this beside the point now? Disney’s treatment of the material is out there now and from nearly all accounts Rachel Zegler has done an amazing job with the role she was given.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

What do you think a proportionate response would be for someone who thinks her comments on the original movie are totally off base?

I haven’t seen many responses to her comments that fit your description but we might just have different frames of reference.

I was kind of thinking the same thing, I’ve seen many comments (and written some) about her being unlikable, smug, not very wise, etc but it’s not like people are threatening her, wishing ill will towards her (she’s the only unhinged one who’s done that), etc. Lots of people saying they won’t give the movie a chance because they don’t like her but that’s about as extreme as it’s got.

 

[coffeefan]

I was kind of thinking the same thing, I’ve seen many comments (and written some) about her being unlikable, smug, not very wise, etc but it’s not like people are threatening her, wishing ill will towards her (she’s the only unhinged one who’s done that), etc. Lots of people saying they won’t give the movie a chance because they don’t like her but that’s about as extreme as it’s got.

But people have harassed her and shown up at her apartment since she got the part.

Edit - The hate campaign started years before she made any comments about the election.

 

[LittleBuford]

What do you think a proportionate response would be for someone who thinks her comments on the original movie are totally off base?

To state—calmly and in a manner befitting an adult—“I think her comments on the original movie are totally off base” before elaborating on why.

I haven’t seen many responses to her comments that fit your description but we might just have different frames of reference.

Here are some direct quotations from this forum:

“She's never been put in her place or had anyone teach her respect.”

“People may be political about a snotty starlet who dissed the source material at company-sponsored media events.”

“What audiences and fans will not accept is outright contempt for the original. That contempt oozes out of everything that has emerged from her.”

“Yea, what part of you don’t crap in the same exact spots you eat and sleep doesn’t this twit understand…?!?!?!”

“Before Disney sends Rachel Zegler out on the talk show circuit this winter, they need to give her media relations lessons from Halle Bailey. If not just perform a personality transplant.”

“On the other hand, ‘It’s not 1937 anymore’ is a direct attack on the original film (and the people who love it).”

“Rachel Zegler said nothing new or bold or insightful. It's all so stale and predictable now. But somehow, and this is the magic of it all, she comes across to many as being this unlikable person. A real snot.”

“Because she's a snotty young person who just crapped on previous generations of artists who were far more accomplished than she is.”

These are just some of the posts (most of them by men in their 40s or older) that, to my mind at least, represent a rather extreme reaction to what Zegler said. No film is worth getting that worked up over.

ETA: And yes, I will acknowledge that I myself was perhaps guilty of a bit of hyperbole in my earlier post. Only a small number of posters here have said things that are truly unhinged. But many have reacted in a manner that I consider disproportionate and/or unseemly.

 

[WoundedDreamer]

I was kind of thinking the same thing, I’ve seen many comments (and written some) about her being unlikable, smug, not very wise, etc but it’s not like people are threatening her, wishing ill will towards her (she’s the only unhinged one who’s done that), etc. Lots of people saying they won’t give the movie a chance because they don’t like her but that’s about as extreme as it’s got.

You know, as someone who found her comments somewhat angering, it really doesn't have anything to do with her. Her comments making fun of the original film and saying how little she valued it pushed my buttons. Why? Because, as Iger informed us, the modern Walt Disney Company exists to be in the IP "mining" business. Iger/Chapek's Walt Disney Company is possibly too risk averse, lacking in creativity, or too incompetent to create new stories. Fine. If they want to cynically continue to go on "mining" IP it's their right as the owners of the business. The only thing audiences expected in return was for The Walt Disney Company to treat the intellectual property with respect.

In a way, Zegler's flippant comments seemed to show Disney couldn't even bother to do that bare minimum. They couldn't be bothered to pretend that they respected the original artists who created the very thing they were about to cynically exploit. And it was not only the original artists that were being exploited, no, it was the legions of fans who had grown to love it.

If you're going to cynically do some IP "mining," I expect you to put in that minimum effort.

“What audiences and fans will not accept is outright contempt for the original. That contempt oozes out of everything that has emerged from her.”

Good quote! Who said that?

But people have harassed her and shown up at her apartment since she got the part.

Edit - The hate campaign started years before she made any comments about the election.

No one sane wants her to face harassment or danger.