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

[Baloo124]

Kids today. I cannot figure them out.

I'd agree, but honestly can't, at least without seeming hypocritical.

When I was a kid, our big thing was Vanilla Ice rapping as 4 turtles turned ninjas danced hip-hop. We ate it up like candy.

 

[Disney Irish]

For every dark cloud there is a silver lining as they say. As much of a bomb disaster Snow White has been at the box office it has officially broke into the top 40 musicals highest grossing of all time, currently sitting at 32 for WW and 38 for domestic.

All Time Worldwide Box Office for Musical Movies

This chart contains the top 100 Musical movies based on the cumulative worldwide box office.

www.the-numbers.com

https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/domestic/all-movies/genres/musical

With the last couple years seeing a few musicals coming out and doing relatively well it'll be interesting to see if Hollywood makes a revival of the movie musical in a bigger way.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

I'd agree, but honestly can't, at least without seeming hypocritical.

When I was a kid, our big thing was Vanilla Ice rapping as 4 turtles turned ninjas danced hip-hop. We ate it up like candy.
View attachment 852441

While I've always felt Turtle Power was the better song, no one can deny Ninja Rap was the greatest moment in cinematic history.

 

[Baloo124]

While I've always felt Turtle Power was the better song

Heck yes, what a great earworm that song is! Powerful, catchy, and the good parts make you forgive the one big flaw: the lyrics mistakenly calling Raphael the "leader of the group" when we all know it meant to say Leonardo.

And now that song is stuck in my head again. No complaints whatsoever.

 

[erasure fan1]

There's no real way to tell a meaningful LEGO story.

You can tell any story you want with lego, by design. A space story? Yup. A fantasy story? Yup. A ninja story? Yup. Any story you want.

There's no real way to tell a meaningful Clue board game story.

Why not? It was just a murder mystery. They've been telling those for a long time.

There's no real way to tell a meaningful 21 Jump Street story.

So there's no way to tell a meaningful police drama about undercover cops?

There's no real way to tell a meaningful Dungeons & Dragons story.

The plethora of novels and stories going back decades would say differently.

I'll amend my statement that it's not "there's no way". But in my opinion there's very little there to work with outside of the very distinct look of the world and some mobs. So there's a whole lot less to work with than those other films. So they gave us the basic aspects of the game with a basic story over top. It was never ment or billed as high art.

The reason I questioned Moana was I expected more from Disney than Minecraft. I didn't question it's success like you implied.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

You can tell any story you want with lego, by design. A space story? Yup. A fantasy story? Yup. A ninja story? Yup. Any story you want.

Why not? It was just a murder mystery. They've been telling those for a long time.

So there's no way to tell a meaningful police drama about undercover cops?

The plethora of novels and stories going back decades would say differently.

I'll amend my statement that it's not "there's no way". But in my opinion there's very little there to work with outside of the very distinct look of the world and some mobs. So there's a whole lot less to work with than those other films. So they gave us the basic aspects of the game with a basic story over top. It was never ment or billed as high art.

The reason I questioned Moana was I expected more from Disney than Minecraft. I didn't question it's success like you implied.

I think you missed Casper's sarcasm.

His point was that you CAN make a good movie based on the flimsy premise of a board game.

Oddly, he excluded Battleship...

 

[Casper Gutman]

I think you missed Casper's sarcasm.

His point was that you CAN make a good movie based on the flimsy premise of a board game.

Oddly, he excluded Battleship...

I thought about is. At least it sort of TRIED, even if it failed. I fell back on ones I thought ended up being genuinely good.

 

[erasure fan1]

I think you missed Casper's sarcasm.

His point was that you CAN make a good movie based on the flimsy premise of a board game.

Oddly, he excluded Battleship...

No, I got it. You missed the point. Those are bad examples because you absolutely can tell a good story with those examples. It was just thrown out to be a gotcha.

 

[LittleBuford]

Those are bad examples because you absolutely can tell a good story with those examples.

That was his point!

 

[easyrowrdw]

I think you missed Casper's sarcasm.

His point was that you CAN make a good movie based on the flimsy premise of a board game.

Oddly, he excluded Battleship...

I thought that movie was a blast! It's totally underrated

 

[celluloid]

The biggest crime of The Battleship movie was marketing never having a single preview or promotional piece featuring:

See the HIT B4 you MISS it.

 

[Casper Gutman]

You can tell any story you want with lego, by design. A space story? Yup. A fantasy story? Yup. A ninja story? Yup. Any story you want.

Why not? It was just a murder mystery. They've been telling those for a long time.

So there's no way to tell a meaningful police drama about undercover cops?

The plethora of novels and stories going back decades would say differently.

I'll amend my statement that it's not "there's no way". But in my opinion there's very little there to work with outside of the very distinct look of the world and some mobs. So there's a whole lot less to work with than those other films. So they gave us the basic aspects of the game with a basic story over top. It was never ment or billed as high art.

The reason I questioned Moana was I expected more from Disney than Minecraft. I didn't question it's success like you implied.

They didn’t make a mystery film or a fantasy film or a whatever film. They made a Clue film and a D&D film and a Lego film. They made films that not only used the surface trappings of the IP but explored why they were special and why and how people engaged with them. Look at how many reviews of D&D discussed how the film managed to capture the sense of playing a game with your particular set of friends. They did this while also making films that told stories with humor and substance. The point is that, if you have creators that are good enough and care enough to actually try, you can make meaningful stories about almost anything. The Minecraft Movie didn’t try.

There is just as much to work with in Minecraft as in Lego. Both are about building. Your dismissive comments about Lego can be just as easily applied to Minecraft.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

Minecraft will rake in tons of cash as a fan service film. Just like Mario Bros did. It doesn't need to be a good film and could even have negative feedback. Fans of the game will still want to see it.

I've never played it so it's a pass for me even on streaming.

 

[celluloid]

They didn’t make a mystery film or a fantasy film or a whatever film. They made a Clue film and a D&D film and a Lego film. They made films that not only used the surface trappings of the IP but explored why they were special and why and how people engaged with them. Look at how many reviews of D&D discussed how the film managed to capture the sense of playing a game with your particular set of friends. They did this while also making films that told stories with humor and substance. The point is that, if you have creators that are good enough and care enough to actually try, you can make meaningful stories about almost anything. The Minecraft Movie didn’t try.

There is just as much to work with in Minecraft as in Lego. Both are about building. Your dismissive comments about Lego can be just as easily applied to Minecraft.

And more specifically, at the core, they would have just been an entertaining well produced time even without the Intellectual Property attached.


That is what Michael Mckean said best with what he said about Clue years ago "You can make a great or bad movie about anything"

Great storytelling is great storytelling.

 

[Phroobar]

I thought that movie was a blast! It's totally underrated

I preferred American Warships to Battleship.

 

[TP2000]

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.

Ah, okay. Got it!

And I still really liked Clue and Barbie.

 

[celluloid]

Minecraft will rake in tons of cash as a fan service film. Just like Mario Bros did. It doesn't need to be a good film and could even have negative feedback. Fans of the game will still want to see it.

I've never played it so it's a pass for me even on streaming.

I never played it, and I have kids, one who has only played it once.

We all enjoyed it decently, and they liked it as well as any other recent kids movie that has been out lately for the family demo. There are certainly millions of people seeing the movie who have never played it or know as much about it.

 

[Phroobar]

Ah, okay. Got it!

And I still really liked Clue and Barbie.

There is a new Clue movie coming out.
Also a Monopoly movie, Play-Doh, Furby, M.A.S.K. and ROM the Space Knight movie.

ROM the Space Knight might be part of the MCU.
M.A.S.K. goes along with GI Joe and Transformers.

 

[Disney Irish]

There is a new Clue movie coming out.
Also a Monopoly movie, Play-Doh, Furby, M.A.S.K. and ROM the Space Knight movie.

ROM the Space Knight might be part of the MCU.
M.A.S.K. goes along with GI Joe and Transformers.

And they say Hollywood has no more original ideas….

 

[Baloo124]

There's no real way to tell a meaningful Dungeons & Dragons story.

vague memories of playing Clue as a kid. But I thought it was great fun, and a great movie!

Oddly, he excluded Battleship...

Also a Monopoly movie

Twister was an odd choice to make a movie about. I'm guessing about halfway through production, they figured it would be inappropriate for family audiences, and decided to change the entire premise to revolve around tornados.
It worked. It made big $. And thankfully we didn't have to witness Helen Hunt & Bill Paxton doing this for two hours.