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

[Agent H]

Of course this is the reasonable view, but it doesn’t rule out some films being ONLY cynical cash grabs. Some movies, like Moana 2 and the Minecraft Movie, ARE just “cynical cash grabs” with no deeper pretensions. That isn’t the norm. I wouldn’t say that about Mario.

The LEGO Movie is a wonderful example of a movie that SHOULD have been nothing more than a cynical cash grab but was imbued with genuine heart, wit, and intelligence by a team of pop artists. Minecraft isn’t that, even if it fits some agendas to pretend it is.

This board will have people praising Michael Bay’s Skibidi Toilet movie (that’s a real thing, not a satirical joke) as long as Disney doesn’t release it.

What the heck is a skibidi toilet?

 

[Casper Gutman]

Mike White is currently the toast of Hollywood. He also co-wrote the execrable The Emoji Movie. Same with Seth Rogen; his The Studio is being lauded as an incisive dissection of the film industry, but he himself almost cultivated and midwifed a boorish sub genre of film.

Heck, pulp fiction earned its name because of the massive output of cheap fiction. It also helped give a platform to what would eventually be some of our greatest genre writers and the superhero genre - a near infinite number of monkeys on a near infinite number of typewriters. Point being, if you look at it all as a cynically slurry of content being foisted on us, occasionally we will be pleasantly surprised.

I’m not even sure what you’re trying to argue here. Yes, all of Hollywoods output is a balancing act between pop art and cynical consumerism and it always has been. That doesn’t mean those components always exist in equal parts. White wrote the beloved School of Rock and Nacho Libre and those films and his role as producer of White Lotus doesn’t mean the Emoji Movie doesn’t exist almost entirely on the “cynical garbage” side of the balance. Seth Rogan has produced immense amounts of quality output, far more than his occasional stinkers. Pulp Fiction was a masterful celebration of a genre that included a lot of overlooked artistry in addition to quite a bit of trash.

None of this changes what Minecraft is. You seem to be arguing against a position no one has taken.

 

[Casper Gutman]

What the heck is a skibidi toilet?

You’re young, you’re supposed to know this nonsense!

 

[easyrowrdw]

She's a great singer and has received recent acclaim on the West End and Broadway. Even in a picture she portrays more drama. The Evil Queen should've been an iconic performance.

Thanks. I don't keep up with the theater so that explains why I've never heard of her. I think I also misunderstood your original post as saying those actresses would be bigger draws for the movie. Not sure why, as you clearly didn't say that lol

 

[Gremlin Gus]

What the heck is a skibidi toilet?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skibidi_Toilet
Semi-related but I want to remind all of you people that Skibidi Toilet got into Fortnite not too long along and I wish I was joking when I typed that.

 

[Agent H]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skibidi_Toilet
Semi-related but I want to remind all of you people that Skibidi Toilet got into Fortnite not too long along and I wish I was joking when I typed that.

What horrors did someone unleash?

 

[Ghost93]

Disney converting the Disney+ Moana series which, lets face it, would have been a pure cost to D+, into the Moana 2 movie that made over 1B is pure genius in Disney's part and I have been saying that.

Like Minecraft, it didn't matter if Moana 2 was lousy.

Switching Moana 2 to theaters was absolutely the right call from a financial standpoint.

My issue with Moana 2 — which is not a good movie — is that it should have never been a Disney Plus show in the first place. Had they brought on the original creative team and Lin Manuel Miranda from the get-go we might have had a Moana 2 that was both financially successful AND a good movie.

I'd be very curious to know what the behind the scenes problems were with the Tiana show that made it never be able to get off the ground or reworked into a movie like Moana 2. We probably won't know the true story till 10 years from now, when Bob Iger isn't running the company anymore. Maybe they couldn't settle on the right animation style, but I suspect it was a show that was greenlit before they had a solid idea of what they wanted it to be. You can see a bunch of different competing visions for what the Disney company actually wants to do with the Tiana character in Tiana's Bayou Adventure and I suspect the "too many cooks in the kitchen" vibe I got from the ride might have been going on in the TV show.

 

[Agent H]

Switching Moana 2 to theaters was absolutely the right call from a financial standpoint.

My issue with Moana 2 — which is not a good movie — is that it should have never been a Disney Plus show in the first place. Had they brought on the original creative team and Lin Manuel Miranda from the get-go we might have had a Moana 2 that was both financially successful AND a good movie.

I'd be very curious to know what the behind the scenes problems were with the Tiana show that made it never be able to get off the ground or reworked into a movie like Moana 2. We probably won't know the true story till 10 years from now, when Bob Iger isn't running the company anymore. Maybe they couldn't settle on the right animation style, but I suspect it was a show that was greenlit before they had a solid idea of what they wanted it to be. You can see a bunch of different competing visions for what the Disney company actually wants to do with the Tiana character in Tiana's Bayou Adventure and I suspect the "too many cooks in the kitchen" vibe I got from the ride might have been going on in the TV show.

I think Moana 2 was a perfectly good Moana sequel. The only thing that suffered in comparison to the original was the soundtrack IMO.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Switching Moana 2 to theaters was absolutely the right call from a financial standpoint.

My issue with Moana 2 — which is not a good movie — is that it should have never been a Disney Plus show in the first place. Had they brought on the original creative team and Lin Manuel Miranda from the get-go we might have had a Moana 2 that was both financially successful AND a good movie.

I'd be very curious to know what the behind the scenes problems were with the Tiana show that made it never be able to get off the ground or reworked into a movie like Moana 2. We probably won't know the true story till 10 years from now, when Bob Iger isn't running the company anymore. Maybe they couldn't settle on the right animation style, but I suspect it was a show that was greenlit before they had a solid idea of what they wanted it to be. You can see a bunch of different competing visions for what the Disney company actually wants to do with the Tiana character in Tiana's Bayou Adventure and I suspect the "too many cooks in the kitchen" vibe I got from the ride might have been going on in the TV show.

Great post. My opinion is Moana 2 was not a good movie, but does it matter? It made over 1B
It wasn’t a good movie but it was a successful movie.

 

[erasure fan1]

but it doesn’t rule out some films being ONLY cynical cash grabs. Some movies, like Moana 2 and the Minecraft Movie, ARE just “cynical cash grabs” with no deeper pretensions.

100%. Minecraft was a total cash grab. It is exactly what everyone thought it was going to be. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Minecraft story. Moana on the other hand, that's not the case at all. So it's not really fair to say people just don't like Disney so there giving Minecraft a pass. Personally I expected Minecraft to be exactly what it is. So when people say giving fans what they want, they did. A dumb silly film with tons of Minecraft stuff. But I didn't expect that from Disney and an ip like Moana, one of their top properties. So that's why Minecraft gets a pass and moana didn't in my opinion.

My issue with Moana 2 — which is not a good movie — is that it should have never been a Disney Plus show in the first place.

Exactly. Why was one of your top ips not given the care it should have from the start.

 

[Gremlin Gus]

I'd be very curious to know what the behind the scenes problems were with the Tiana show that made it never be able to get off the ground or reworked into a movie like Moana 2. We probably won't know the true story till 10 years from now, when Bob Iger isn't running the company anymore. Maybe they couldn't settle on the right animation style, but I suspect it was a show that was greenlit before they had a solid idea of what they wanted it to be. You can see a bunch of different competing visions for what the Disney company actually wants to do with the Tiana character in Tiana's Bayou Adventure and I suspect the "too many cooks in the kitchen" vibe I got from the ride might have been going on in the TV show.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the Tiana series canned for a variety of reasons like how much it was stuck in development hell, the project going overbudget to justify it and overall WDAS prioritizing movies and specials over Disney+ series. I'm somewhat glad we're at least getting a Tiana special though idk if that's going to be either completely original or just an episode for that show that got reworked into a special.

Either way, maybe it was for the best at the end of day WDAS stopped doing those Disney+ series as they probably were going to end up getting the Moana 2 treatment or just canned. I'm still hoping we can still get WDAS IPs as shows perhaps from the DTVA division from the company (cough cough Encanto) but I guess we'll have to wait and see huh?

My issue with Moana 2 — which is not a good movie — is that it should have never been a Disney Plus show in the first place.

Yeah I have zero clue why wasn't Moana 2 always a theatrical movie from the start, I'm guessing the series was to dip their toes into the idea of a sequel, but then Disney saw how popular Moana is on streaming and heck even nowadays and decides to make it a movie due to how much more profitable it probably was going to be.

 

[Agent H]

You’re young, you’re supposed to know this nonsense!

I have literally anything else to do with my life.

 

[Casper Gutman]

100%. Minecraft was a total cash grab. It is exactly what everyone thought it was going to be. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Minecraft story. Moana on the other hand, that's not the case at all. So it's not really fair to say people just don't like Disney so there giving Minecraft a pass. Personally I expected Minecraft to be exactly what it is. So when people say giving fans what they want, they did. A dumb silly film with tons of Minecraft stuff. But I didn't expect that from Disney and an ip like Moana, one of their top properties. So that's why Minecraft gets a pass and moana didn't in my opinion.

Exactly. Why was one of your top ips not given the care it should have from the start.

There's no real way to tell a meaningful LEGO story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Clue board game story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful 21 Jump Street story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Dungeons & Dragons story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Barbie story (this one might be true).

 

[Tony the Tigger]

There's no real way to tell a meaningful LEGO story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Clue board game story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful 21 Jump Street story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Dungeons & Dragons story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Barbie story (this one might be true).

To state the obvious: what is meaningful to one person is irrelevant to another.

Just saw a video of the antics going on at the Minecraft movie.

No.

Now, if they make separate showings like they did with the wicked sing-along, that’s another story. But I’m not buying a ticket for jumping up and yelling and popcorn throwing.

I might dig it if I were 11 and absolutely certain I would not get in trouble.

 

[Casper Gutman]

To state the obvious: what is meaningful to one person is irrelevant to another.

Just saw a video of the antics going on at the Minecraft movie.

No.

Now, if they make separate showings like they did with the wicked sing-along, that’s another story. But I’m not buying a ticket for jumping up and yelling and popcorn throwing.

I might dig it if I were 11 and absolutely certain I would not get in trouble.

Get ready. Every single studio will be chasing that reaction.

 

[DisneyHead123]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skibidi_Toilet
Semi-related but I want to remind all of you people that Skibidi Toilet got into Fortnite not too long along and I wish I was joking when I typed that.

At least the Skibidi song is catchy as heck. My son was walking around singing “Give me some Skittles, but I don’t wanna pay for them” the other day so I was thinking “Oh fun! Another ear worm meme song!” and looked it up. Now that one? I don’t understand at all. It doesn’t even rhyme!

Kids today. I cannot figure them out.

 

[TP2000]

There's no real way to tell a meaningful LEGO story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Clue board game story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful 21 Jump Street story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Dungeons & Dragons story. There's no real way to tell a meaningful Barbie story (this one might be true).

I get your point, but I thought the movie Clue was brilliant. I remember it well 40 years later.... I was drawn in by Madeline Kahn, and a slightly lesser extent by Eileen Brennan, plus vague memories of playing Clue as a kid. But I thought it was great fun, and a great movie! And again... Madeline Kahn for goshsakes!

Barbie, similarly, was also great fun. And while I didn't play with Barbies as a child (or at least didn't dare), I thought the pop culture bullseye that movie had was fantastic. So fun, so true, so.... Barbie.

Those movies can work fabulously, and the box office is usually great. Not everything has to be War And Peace, after all.

 

[brideck]

I get your point, but...

I'm not sure you did. He was listing movies that had care put into a meaningful story despite originating as shallow merchandising tie-ins as opposed to just compiling together a series of gags from Zoomer/Alpha spaces online, like Minecraft does.

Indeed, none of those listed were War and Peace, but they all had coherent stories with meaningful stakes or messages at their core.

 

[brideck]

This coming weekend will be interesting. At my local theaters, Minecraft is keeping all of the screens that it had for its opening, which almost never happens. What will the dropoff be? Angel Studios goes big into the animated space with King of Kings -- my spouse has been getting all sorts of ads on YT for it this week, and it's getting 2+ screens/theater here. Also opening are Drop, Warfare (a new war flick by Alex Garland), and 20th Century's The Amateur. Each of them gets a full screen and steals a handful of premium screen showings as well. I don't think I expect any of those three to make a real impact with audiences.

 

[Disney Irish]

This coming weekend will be interesting. At my local theaters, Minecraft is keeping all of the screens that it had for its opening, which almost never happens. What will the dropoff be? Angel Studios goes big into the animated space with King of Kings -- my spouse has been getting all sorts of ads on YT for it this week, and it's getting 2+ screens/theater here. Also opening are Drop, Warfare (a new war flick by Alex Garland), and 20th Century's The Amateur. Each of them gets a full screen and steals a handful of premium screen showings as well. I don't think I expect any of those three to make a real impact with audiences.

There is a bunch of small and mid range movies opening between now and when Thunderbolts opens up on May 2nd.

It'll be interesting to see how many of them do, I'm not expecting any to make huge box office but a couple may do relatively well. So we may be heading into a new era of small to mid range movies again, which many here claim we need for the variety. Lets hope audiences so up otherwise Hollywood will shut the door on the theatrical for many of them again in favor of pushing to streaming.