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

[LittleBuford]

I've never really understood the vitriol that Chicken Little gets. I mean, it's not something that warrants repeat watches or anything but it has some funny moments and is entertaining enough. I'd at least use Home on the Range as an example of a horrible Disney animated film of that era over Chicken Little.

And does The Wild count as Disney animation? Talk about awful.

I went into it optimistic—I am a Disney loyalist and have never truly disliked any of their animated films. This is the one and only exception. (Home on the Range is far, far better in my opinion.)

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I think there’s some rosy retrospection going on here. There have been plenty of not-so-great Disney films in past decades, and a few outright bad ones (I’m looking at you, Chicken Little). Box-office performance isn’t necessarily a measure of quality. The Lion King remake made more than a billion despite being awful, and Wish was not nearly as bad as the figures suggest. I agree with you and others that Disney’s reputation may have taken a knock, but the idea that you could always be assured of a great product when a film had the Disney name on it isn’t true.

I addressed this in a subsequent post, Disney has a weird cycle of good/bad that almost follows the decades, there’s outliers within those cycles but overall the perception goes way up, or way down. We just came out of a decade where the perception was nearly everything they did was loved… Disney Animation was on fire with PaTF, Tangled, Wreck it Ralph, Frozen, BH6, Zootopia, Moana, Frozen, at the same time Marvel was putting out massive hit after massive hit, meanwhile Pixar was putting out hits, meanwhile the “unpopular” live action remakes were raking in billions, even struggling franchises like Star Wars and Pirates that had quality issues with many fans were still pulling in billions.

Over the last 5 years animation is struggling, Marvel is struggling, Star Wars has virtually disappeared, Pirates is gone, Pixar is struggling, the remakes are struggling… there’s a few exceptions like Moana2 and Avatar but overall the perception couldn’t be more different now than it was just 5 or 6 years ago when it seemed they could do no wrong.

 

[Agent H]

I addressed this in a subsequent post, Disney has a weird cycle of good/bad that almost follows the decades, there’s outliers within those cycles but overall the perception goes way up, or way down. We just came out of a decade where the perception was nearly everything they did was loved… Disney Animation was on fire since Dec 2009 with PaTF, Tangled, Wreck it Ralph, Frozen, BH6, Zootopia, Moana, and ending with Frozen2 in 2019… at the same time Marvel was putting out massive hit after massive hit, meanwhile Pixar was putting out hits, meanwhile the “unpopular” live action movies were raking in billions, even struggling franchises like Star Wars and Pirates that had quality issues with many fans were still pulling in billions.

Over the last 5 years animation is struggling, Marvel is struggling, Star Wars has virtually disappeared, Pirates is gone, Pixar is struggling… there’s a few exceptions like Moana2 and Avatar but overall the perception couldn’t be more different now than it was just 5 or 6 years ago when it seemed they could do no wrong.

And yet I’m an apologist for a lot of the projects from those time periods. The early 2000s is the worst one but I like most of the movies they made in that time even some of the direct to dvd sequels.

 

[LittleBuford]

I addressed this in a subsequent post, Disney has a weird cycle of good/bad that almost follows the decades, there’s outliers within those cycles but overall the perception goes way up, or way down. We just came out of a decade where the perception was nearly everything they did was loved… Disney Animation was on fire with PaTF, Tangled, Wreck it Ralph, Frozen, BH6, Zootopia, Moana, Frozen, at the same time Marvel was putting out massive hit after massive hit, meanwhile Pixar was putting out hits, meanwhile the “unpopular” live action remakes were raking in billions, even struggling franchises like Star Wars and Pirates that had quality issues with many fans were still pulling in billions.

Over the last 5 years animation is struggling, Marvel is struggling, Star Wars has virtually disappeared, Pirates is gone, Pixar is struggling, the remakes are struggling… there’s a few exceptions like Moana2 and Avatar but overall the perception couldn’t be more different now than it was just 5 or 6 years ago when it seemed they could do no wrong.

This cyclical framing seems somewhat at odds with your earlier then vs. now framing, which suggested that people used to be able to trust Disney but no longer can. Perhaps I misunderstood you, in which case I apologise.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

And yet I’m an apologist for a lot of the projects from those time periods. The early 2000s is the worst one but I like most of the movies they made in that time even some of the direct to dvd sequels.

I love the hand drawn stuff from the early 2000s, it was a weird time as they were shifting to computer animated though, between Chicken Little, Home on the Range, Meet the Robinsons, and Bolt it was a bit of a painful 5 year transition period.

 

[Agent H]

I love the hand drawn stuff from the early 2000s, it was a weird time as they were shifting to computer animated though, between Chicken Little, Home on the Range, Meet the Robinsons, and Bolt it was a bit of a painful 5 year transition period.

Chicken little sucks. Bolt is mediocre. I like the rest.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I don’t have blind trust in any studio anymore, Disney was formerly the lone exception. This also isn’t the first time they’ve lost that trust, Disney had a pretty bad run in the 80s, followed by the renaissance era in the 90s, then a pretty bad run in 00s, followed by fairly amazing 10s, followed by pretty bad 20s… I expect the 2030s to be another golden age for Disney.

This cyclical framing seems somewhat at odds with your earlier then vs. now framing, which suggested that people used to be able to trust Disney but no longer can. Perhaps I misunderstood you, in which case I apologise.

My initial post wasn’t very well worded which was why I clarified when asked with the second post quoted above.

 

[LittleBuford]

Chicken little sucks. Bolt is mediocre. I like the rest.

I really enjoyed Bolt! I’d say it’s pretty good.

 

[Agent H]

I really enjoyed Bolt! I’d say it’s pretty good.

It’s not an objectively bad movie or anything. Just nothing I feel strongly about one way or the other.

 

[Baloo124]

Chicken little sucks.

I tried to watch that one. I tried to enjoy that one. I made it maybe 7-10 minutes into it and realized it was not gonna happen.

 

[Baloo124]

I saw Jaws in the theater at age 4. Didn’t want to take a bath after.

Well now I'm feeling like a real coward. You had a backbone at age 4 and could handle Jaws, one of the most terrifying films in history.
Meanwhile at several years older, I still couldn't handle Large Marge and the clown doctor from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

And yet I’m an apologist for a lot of the projects from those time periods. The early 2000s is the worst one but I like most of the movies they made in that time even some of the direct to dvd sequels.

I’ve enjoyed probably 95% of what Disney animations done over the years, the vast majority have only been viewed a couple times though, the exceptions are movies like Stitch, Moana, Tangled, Robin Hood, Aladdin, the Lion King, Encanto, etc that are my go to’s I seem to watch a few times every year.

 

[DKampy]

Yes I mentioned them in terms of potentially having SW landing the same level as the other two in terms of box office returns.


Eternals and Cap 4 didn’t do well either. ETA Thor love and Thunder? A quick read says that needed up pulling a profit.

DC is an odd duck. I think there was some good ideas in SS just badly executed. Same with Justice League. Then again I’ve never been a big fan of DC relative

I did not mention Eternals because I felt that happen during Covid… so there was a bit of an asterisk with that…. Though I thought it was an awful movie either way

Cap 4 … I left it alone for the time being as it is still in theaters…. Though in my mind it looks like a disappointment rather than an outright disaster

I am not the biggest superhero movie fan…but as a film fan(any genre)I have seen many…. The Thor franchise is one that I have not seen much of… But as far as I can tell it was on par with the other Thor movies

I did like The James Gunn SS

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Well now I'm feeling like a real coward. You had a backbone at age 4 and could handle Jaws, one of the most terrifying films in history.
Meanwhile at several years older, I still couldn't handle Large Marge and the clown doctor from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

I had no choice, mom had no sitter!

I love that movie to this day. If I’m flipping through the channels and it’s on, I’m probably watching it.

But I have never been able to watch truly gory stuff. I prefer scary/suspenseful rather than gross.

I think I empathize too much and just see injury and pain, and turn away, wincing. So much for backbone!

 

[TP2000]

I honestly forgot chicken little existed until just now and by extension I also remembered this abomination.View attachment 849685

Wait, I thought you were 17 years old? You would have been Minus 3 years old when that happened at DCA 1.0.

Perhaps your parents hadn't even gone on their first date in 2005.

Or are you just remembering it vicariously through the Internet? That wouldn't be the first time that happened on these boards.

 

[DKampy]

Wait, I thought you were 17 years old? You would have been Minus 3 years old when that happened at DCA 1.0.

Perhaps your parents hadn't even gone on their first date in 2005.

Or are you just remembering it vicariously through the Internet? That wouldn't be the first time that happened on these boards.

Because people can not go back and watch older movies

 

[LittleBuford]

Because people can not go back and watch older movies

I think he's referring to that monstrosity erected in California Adventure. But yes, one doesn't have to have seen such a thing to have knowledge of it.

 

[DKampy]

I think he's referring to that monstrosity erected in California Adventure. But yes, one doesn't have to have seen such a thing to have knowledge of it.

Ahhh…. Yes… never mind… It’s still early here… I did not see the DCA mention

 

[Agent H]

Wait, I thought you were 17 years old? You would have been Minus 3 years old when that happened at DCA 1.0.

Perhaps your parents hadn't even gone on their first date in 2005.

Or are you just remembering it vicariously through the Internet? That wouldn't be the first time that happened on these boards.

It’s the latter. I’ve never been to Disneyland.

 

[Disney Irish]

Wait, I thought you were 17 years old? You would have been Minus 3 years old when that happened at DCA 1.0.

Perhaps your parents hadn't even gone on their first date in 2005.

Or are you just remembering it vicariously through the Internet? That wouldn't be the first time that happened on these boards.

One does not have to have personally experienced something in order to have learned about that thing and know it, and thus be reminded of it later in conversation.

I mean you're proof of that, you've never seen like 99.9% of the movies discussed on this board and yet you can talk about their box office endlessly and have opinions on them.