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

[Chi84]

Yeah, I don't agree with all the posts saying that it was an especially bad choice for a remake. The original film isn't some obscure IP that today's children have no connection with.

The fact that they are familiar with the IP doesn’t mean they want to see a film based on it.

 

[LittleBuford]

I can only speak for myself but I didn’t grow up watching it and neither did my kids or grandkids.

I believe my mother-in-law was 7 years old when it was released. She may have seen it in a theater but she died 3 years ago at the age of 92 so I can’t ask.

Most people I know are familiar with the story from the Golden Books or from the parks.

In a way, that lends it even better to being remade. If children only have a vague, mediated sense of the original film, then they should be even more receptive to adaptations that deviate from it while retaining some of its familiar imagery.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Yeah, I don't agree with all the posts saying that it was an especially bad choice for a remake. The original film isn't some obscure IP that today's children have no connection with.

They really should have gone with the wuxia Snow White and the Seven Shaolin Monks concept they were developing in the mid-2000s.

 

[LittleBuford]

The fact that they are familiar with the IP doesn’t mean they want to see a film based on it.

But it also doesn't mean that they wouldn't want to see a film based on it.

 

[LittleBuford]

They really should have gone with the wuxia Snow White and the Seven Shaolin Monks concept they were developing in the mid-2000s.

I thought you were joking until I just looked it up!

Snow White and the seven kung fu monks: Disney sets sights on China

The Wicked Queen will not know what hit her. Snow White is about to be transformed into a martial arts epic with Shaolin monks replacing the seven dwarves of the original Grimm Brothers fairytale.

www.theguardian.com

I had no idea this was a thing!

 

[Casper Gutman]

In a way, that lends it even better to being remade. If children only have a vague, mediated sense of the original film, then they should be even more receptive to adaptations that deviate from it while retaining some of its familiar imagery.

That should be what people want from nostalgia-heavy sequels and remakes but it isn’t. They want the same thing they enjoyed the first time, right down to the same lines and story beats.

Actually, what people want is to be the age they were when they first enjoyed a piece of media, with all the exuberance and innocence of a lost youth.

 

[Casper Gutman]

I thought you were joking until I just looked it up!

Snow White and the seven kung fu monks: Disney sets sights on China

The Wicked Queen will not know what hit her. Snow White is about to be transformed into a martial arts epic with Shaolin monks replacing the seven dwarves of the original Grimm Brothers fairytale.

www.theguardian.com

I had no idea this was a thing!

It would have been a perfect spin on the story that would have brought something genuinely new to the table.

 

[Agent H]

I thought you were joking until I just looked it up!

Snow White and the seven kung fu monks: Disney sets sights on China

The Wicked Queen will not know what hit her. Snow White is about to be transformed into a martial arts epic with Shaolin monks replacing the seven dwarves of the original Grimm Brothers fairytale.

www.theguardian.com

I had no idea this was a thing!

Man they had some weird ideas around that time.

 

[Chi84]

In a way, that lends it even better to being remade. If children only have a vague, mediated sense of the original film, then they should be even more receptive to adaptations that deviate from it while retaining some of its familiar imagery.

But their ridiculous nostalgic grandparents mounted a campaign against that type of remake.

 

[LittleBuford]

It would have been a perfect spin on the story that would have brought something genuinely new to the table.

Imagine the uproar if such a thing were proposed today!

 

[WorldExplorer]

I agree with this, but the money Disney really wanted does not exist. Nobody needed this film, nobody wanted this film. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is 88 years old. Exactly whose nostalgia is this remake intending to milk? Should they be playing the film in nursing homes?

Snow White was the 3rd highest selling VHS (not Disney VHS, in general) and either in or at least around the top ten highest selling Blu-rays depending on what source you look at, so probably those people. It also rereleased in theaters like twelve times all the way through to the 90s. Not sure what the streaming numbers are, admittedly, but the heavy switch to streaming is pretty recent, all things considered. Even if we presume no one streams it, that's pretty strong evidence people were watching it recently enough for young adults to have nostalgia for it.

I really don't understand why people suddenly act like we never moved past the "movies are in theaters then disappear" phase of movies when it comes to Snow White so only old people have watched it. Especially since you never hear this stuff for, like, Cinderella. 75 year old film is okay, but 88 years old will obviously only be watched by the elderly.


I do agree no one actually wanted this, though. Not because no one likes Snow White, but because I think most people knew the remake would turn out being garbage.

 

[Chi84]

Snow White was the 3rd highest selling VHS (not Disney VHS, in general) and either in or at least around the top ten highest selling Blu-rays depending on what source you look at, so probably those people. It also rereleased in theaters like twelve times all the way through to the 90s. Not sure what the streaming numbers are, admittedly, but the heavy switch to streaming is pretty recent, all things considered. Even if we presume no one streams it, that's pretty strong evidence people were watching it recently enough for young adults to have nostalgia for it.

I really don't understand why people suddenly act like we never moved past the "movies are in theaters then disappear" phase of movies when it comes to Snow White so only old people have watched it. Especially since you never hear this stuff for, like, Cinderella. 75 year old film is okay, but 88 years old will obviously only be watched by the elderly.


I do agree no one actually wanted this, though.

There’s a world of difference between the look and feel of the animated Cinderella and the animated Snow White.

 

[LittleBuford]

I really don't understand why people suddenly act like we never moved past the "movies are in theaters then disappear" phase of movies when it comes to Snow White so only old people have watched it. Especially since you never hear this stuff for, like, Cinderella. 75 year old film is okay, but 88 years old will obviously only be watched by the elderly.

It is true that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs feels a lot slower than Cinderella and the other well-known fairytale movies. But I agree with your overall point.

I do agree no one actually wanted this, though.

This is something else that people here keep saying and that puzzles me. Who wanted the remakes of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King? Those all went on to do pretty well.

 

[Chi84]

Who wanted the remake of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King? Those all went on to do pretty well.

In my opinion those were much more detailed and interesting stories.

 

[LittleBuford]

In my opinion those were much more detailed and interesting stories.

OK, but the idea that this was self-evidently a bad idea just doesn't make sense to me. Disney has been churning out remakes and tie-ins for over a decade now and, with a few notable exceptions, they've been very lucrative for the company. To claim that Snow White's failure is due to the shortcomings of the original IP seems as extreme to me as laying it all at Zegler's feet.

 

[Disney Rocks]

I don't think the Snow White story is that compelling to people. Or at least it doesn't have the Four Quadrant appeal necessary to be a major blockbuster the way Jungle Book, Aladdin, Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast did.

Mirror Mirror (a very Disney-esque movie) had Julia Roberts and grossed under $200 million. Snow White and the Huntsman had Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron and made under $400 million.

Cinderella is also a story that's been done to death and "only" made half a billion back in 2015. But that one was sensibly budgeted and was profitable. There was no reality where a Snow White movie was going to make the billion that Disney was clearly expecting.

 

[DKampy]

This is something else that people here keep saying and that puzzles me. Who wanted the remakes of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King? Those all went on to do pretty well.

I missed out on the Renaissance era as I graduated high school the year The Little Mermaid was released…. But IMO Beauty and the Beast Aladdin, and The Lion King had the luxury of hitting at the right time…. Just as the kids who grew up with those films were old enough to be nostalgic as adults… plus had kids of their own

 

[LittleBuford]

I missed out on the Renaissance era as I graduated high school the year The Little Mermaid was released…. But IMO Beauty and the Beast Aladdin, and The Lion King had the luxury of hitting at the right time…. Just as the kids who grew up with those films were old enough to be nostalgic as adults… plus had kids of their own

That's a good point, but even remakes of much earlier films have done well. The Jungle Book, for example, was very profitable, despite being tonally and narratively quite unlike the animated version.

 

[Chi84]

OK, but the idea that this was self-evidently a bad idea just doesn't make sense to me. Disney has been churning out remakes and tie-ins for over a decade now and, with a few notable exceptions, they've been very lucrative for the company. To claim that Snow White's failure is due to the shortcomings of the original IP seems as extreme to me as laying it all at Zegler's feet.

I don’t think it was the only reason but I do think it’s the main one.

Movie-going habits and the type of action-packed, more grown-up entertainment that even the youngest kids are familiar with are also reasons.

And a lot of people didn’t like the look of the dwarfs. In my opinion, that was always going to be an issue with this particular remake.

 

[LittleBuford]

And a lot of people didn’t like the look of the dwarfs. In my opinion, that was always going to be an issue with this particular remake.

This I agree with. The leaked photo of the bandits and the promotional image of Snow White surrounded by the dwarfs are what I think did the most damage.