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

Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
Disney Irish said:
Shareholders care about the overall profitability of the company, not individual movies. As long as the overall entertainment division is profitable, which it has been, they don't care if movies go over budget.
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I gotta give this one to you.
Fact is, the only stock in my portfolio in the green at the moment is Disney.

And the fact is, the reason I keep Disney is because I am a fan of the company even though I disagree a lot with what they do at WDW and in the movies.

I do think Disney is too big to fail.
 
Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Farerb said:
So weird how many "Disney fans" are just okay trashing the film that literally made Disney what it is just to prop up a lousy remake that will be completely forgotten in a few months.
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Yes, it's a masterpiece that revolutionized film and I love it.

Yes, it's a product of its time and there are a lot of things to make fun about it.

Both these things are true. Being a fan means being able to acknowledge both. In fact, anyone who professes to love Disney but can't acknowledge the silly or even bad things about Disney isn't so much a "Disney Fan" as a 'Brand Loyalist."

This goes to a broader point. You don't show your love for something by angrily refusing to acknowledge its faults and lashing out at people who are honest about it. The "love" that that produces is a shallow, meaningless shell of a thing. The good doesn't matter as much without the bad.

This is true of patriotism as well, of course.
 
Farerb

Farerb

Well-Known Member
Casper Gutman said:
Yes, it's a masterpiece that revolutionized film and I love it.

Yes, it's a product of its time and there are a lot of things to make fun about it.

Both these things are true. Being a fan means being able to acknowledge both. In fact, anyone who professes to love Disney but can't acknowledge the silly or even bad things about Disney isn't so much a "Disney Fan" as a 'Brand Loyalist."

This goes to a broader point. You don't show your love for something by angrily refusing to acknowledge its faults and lashing out at people who are honest about it. The "love" that that produces is a shallow, meaningless shell of a thing. The good doesn't matter as much without the bad.

This is true of patriotism as well, of course.
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Fairytales are about symbolism, they are not meant to be taken literally. This attitude is why we don't get good fairytale movies anymore.
 
W

WoundedDreamer

Well-Known Member
Disney Irish said:
You assume that Shareholders care how much they spent on their latest movie. I never really see one question at any shareholder meeting or earnings call from anyone complaining the movie budgets are too high.

Also stakeholders have a different priority than monetary. So they don't care about budgets either.

The only people that care about budgets are those that are focused on trying to mark the latest film a "flop".
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Shareholders care about profitability of the firm. The shareholders that ask questions at annual meetings are generally small retail investor "super fans." They tend to be more interested in the company's content than the company's performance. The actual number of retail investors who are in this group is comparatively tiny. The vast majority of shareholders (including institutions, pensions, hedge funds) are very concerned with the profitability of The Walt Disney Company. That includes box office grosses.

The Walt Disney Company has more than ten studio releases due in 2025. Because of this diversification, Disney is well positioned to handle individual poor performing films. However, multiple movies underperforming in a year can absolutely impact overall profitability and performance. Each film does matter, but the impact is blunted by diversification.

@Disstevefan1 is presenting a reasonable strategy for dealing with the shifting media landscape. By reducing budgets, Disney can accept lower box office grosses while turning handsome profits. The only complication are audiences expectations. Will audiences accept films that are less flashy? The other way to reduce budgets is to have projects more fleshed out when they are approved. That could reduce expensive reshoots, but that might hamper the creative team's ability to adjust to the film as it's realized. It's tricky business.
 
Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Farerb said:
Fairytales are about symbolism, they are not meant to be taken literally. This attitude is why we don't get good fairytale movies anymore.
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Fairytales embody the ideals and beliefs of the time in which they are told. Thus, they change depending on the time in which they are told. Disney changed all the fairytales it made into films from earlier versions - this is why silly people constantly complained about "Disney-fication" as though it was wrong or unusual. The people complaining about the new version changing the animated version are making the exact same dumb mistake.
 
Farerb

Farerb

Well-Known Member
Agent H said:
Symbolism? What does the kiss at the end of the movie symbolize?
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Snow White's journey symbolizes a coming of age. A little girl becoming a woman. Eating the apple is the loss of innocence we experience as we grow up, but also the entire scenery with Snow White evokes life while the Queen evokes death and decay, hence why when she eats the apple the entire atmosphere changes from sunny to raining, as if the world died with her, and the power of true love is what wakes Snow but also brings life to the world again.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
WoundedDreamer said:
Shareholders care about profitability of the firm. The shareholders that ask questions at annual meetings are generally small retail investor "super fans." They tend to be more interested in the company's content than the company's performance. The actual number of retail investors who are in this group is comparatively tiny. The vast majority of shareholders (including institutions, pensions, hedge funds) are very concerned with the profitability of The Walt Disney Company. That includes box office grosses.

The Walt Disney Company has more than ten studio releases due in 2025. Because of this diversification, Disney is well positioned to handle individual poor performing films. However, multiple movies underperforming in a year can absolutely impact overall profitability and performance. Each film does matter, but the impact is blunted by diversification.

@Disstevefan1 is presenting a reasonable strategy for dealing with the shifting media landscape. By reducing budgets, Disney can accept lower box office grosses while turning handsome profits. The only complication are audiences expectations. While audiences accept films that are less flashy? The other way to reduce budgets is to have projects more fleshed out when they are approved. That could reduce expensive reshoots, though that might hamper the creative team's ability to adjust to the film as it's realized. It's tricky business.
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Assumptions are being made there however. If it was such an issue it would be brought up during earnings calls or shareholder meetings.

As an example, the no good very bad year of 2023 when very few movie made money and many were over budget there was not one single question about movie budgets.

It makes a nice headline and something we discuss about here, but very few if any major shareholder cares if a movie is over budget, just if the overall division is making money.

As far as strategy goes, ALL of us here have discussed the need for Disney to bring down budgets. So this is not some revolutionary stance that is being taken here. So lets put this into perspective.
 
Agent H

Agent H

Well-Known Member
Farerb said:
Snow White's journey symbolizes a coming of age. A little girl becoming a woman. Eating the apple is the loss of innocence we experience as we grow up, but also the entire scenery with Snow White evokes life while the Queen evokes death and decay, hence why when she eats the apple the entire atmosphere changes from sunny to raining, as if the world died with her, and the power of true love is what wakes Snow but also brings life to the world again.
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Sorry deleted my original post by accident. Anyway that’s an interesting way of looking at it but I don’t see why that would majorly the view of someone who thinks that the end of the movie is “weird” I don’t even share that view myself but a good amount of people do.
 
Phroobar

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Disstevefan1 said:
I gotta give this one to you.
Fact is, the only stock in my portfolio in the green at the moment is Disney.

And the fact is, the reason I keep Disney is because I am a fan of the company even though I disagree a lot with what they do at WDW and in the movies.

I do think Disney is too big to fail.
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It's not too big to be corporate raided.

  • Wendy Darling: And what's so terribly important about your terribly important business?
  • Jack: Well, you see, when a big company's in trouble, Dad sails in, and if there's *any* resistance...
  • Peter Banning: Well, he's exaggerating. I'm still into mergers and acquisitions. And I'm dabbling in some land development.
  • Jack: Any resistance - and he *blows* them out of the water.
  • Wendy Darling: So, Peter, you've become a pirate.
 

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