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

[wtyy21]

The exception this summer is Guardians 3, and Elemental. But Guardians still only made $57 Million globally, and Elemental is going to lose around $100 Million globally.

However, given the unexpected box office turnaround of Elemental, especially for Japan's release this August, we expected the film to cut it's lost to just tens of millions dollars (currently $113 Million Loss)

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Not at all. If this were a Paramount forum (and Paramount still owned King's Island and Carowinds, I guess?) we'd be talking about how miserable M:I has done. Because it has done just as bad domestically as Indy 5.

What is interesting though is how badly Disney's movies are performing overseas this summer, compared to their other competition in similar movie categories;

Indy 5 Overseas Box Office = 112% of Domestic Box Office
Mission: Impossible Overseas Box Office = 221% of Domestic Box Office

Mermaid Overseas Box Office = 89% of Domestic Box Office
Barbie Overseas Box Office = 121% of Domestic Box Office (Not open yet in all overseas markets)

Foreigners aren't fans of Disney tentpole movies lately, to an even bigger extent than Americans.

Disney movies are underperforming on a planetary scale

Yet more silliness is the continual parsing of this

 

[celluloid]

To your point, when I watch an old movie on TCM - or MGM - or HBO, it’s all about, “Am I enjoying this? Is this a good movie?”

Remarkably, I’m usually able to answer that question for myself without researching how much it cost to make or how good the box office receipts were.

As one should be as a movie viewer.

Now, let's say you post in a thread titled what this one is, where the first post is "figured we could create a thread to discuss all things Disney, and their box office performance, instead of littering the various threads."
Would you be shocked if a focus a lot of the time was on box office results of movies' performances?

 

[BuddyThomas]

You are in New York, stop, you know the deal. Movies are vehicles to make money.
View attachment 734588

Warm summer nights. Lollipops. Bunny rabbits. Mr. Softee. Not getting banned for fighting with people on here even though I know exactly what to say. Instead, goldfish, peanut butter, full moon, napkins.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I'm not making a substantive claim, I'm talking about branding. Most people over the age of 35 aren't constantly online and the only time they'd see a mask like that is at Pride.

When I have a moment, if you don’t mind, I’d like to message you privately. This whole detour is going to get deleted (even though I think it gets to the heart of the matter about what’s happening with Disney films.) But I think there’s a substantive conversation to be had between you and I. (And it needn’t be long/drawn out.)

For now, I would like to point out you’ve revealed a bias in the quote above.

The only place they’d see a dog mask is Pride?

No. There are plenty of dog masks in the straight community. I don’t get it, but there are kink clubs, swingers clubs, dominatrix stuff, etc.

I’ve been to a couple of dozen Pride events without ever having seen one. I’ve never even seen one worn at the leather bars, but I’m aware of their existence.

I’m not saying it’s never happened, but it’s not widespread at public Pride events.

I’m as vanilla as they come. Yet, the more I see, the less I judge.

 

[celluloid]

That probably should have just been a check your messages as that post and the response seem irrelevant to topic of box office results by any stretch.

 

[MisterPenguin]

The issue seems to be how should Disney place and market its products for families today.

Disney's recent strategy of trying to appease everyone by including 2 second background Lesbian kisses in Lightyear or non-sexual but overtly gay teen romances in Strange World didn't work. It upset a lot of parents who stayed away from those products, and upset the Silver Lake Brunch Crowd who work for Disney and creates those products. The Bud Light analogy couldn't be more apt regarding the disdain many Disney employees now have for their longtime core customers. There are plenty of Alissa Heinerscheid types in Burbank it seems.

Disney wrangled a weak win for itself on that by appeasing its boisterous employees doing messy "Walkout" campaigns, but that win was just as fleeting as the Comp Day they used for it was. And their box office results are still awful.

It seems to me Disney has two choices right now after this disastrous box office summer:

1. Fix their creative direction that has brought them box office misery.
2. Just keep going and hope that the Minivan Costco Crowd will finally relent and obey the Silver Lake Brunch Crowd and buy Disney media again without hesitation.

I would add that the bloated mega-budgets HAVE to be reeled in immediately, but that's obvious just from factual data.

If there's some other strategy you or anyone else can suggest for how Disney fixes this mess they're in, I'd love to hear it.

Since you have such a genuine concern for corporate boo boos and for Barbie...

Warner Bros. U.S. Responds To Barbenheimer Criticism Out Of Japan – Update

Warner Bros Japan has criticized the U.S. team's social posts about "Barbenheimer," and the U.S. company apologized.

deadline.com

 

[LittleBuford]

The Bud Light analogy couldn't be more apt regarding the disdain many Disney employees now have for their longtime core customers.

I think you’re making rather too many assumptions about the attitudes of, and even who constitutes, these “longtime core customers”.

 

[TP2000]

I think you’re making rather too many assumptions about the attitudes of, and even who constitutes, these “longtime core customers”.

So why do you think Disney’s mega-budget movies (except Marvel butch films and the Avatar sequel) keep losing money?

Just a random string of bad luck Post-Covid?

 

[LittleBuford]

So why do you think Disney’s mega-budget movies (except Marvel butch films and the Avatar sequel) keep losing money?

Just a random string of bad luck Post-Covid?

As others have pointed out—repeatedly—the current state of the box office isn’t a uniquely Disney problem.

 

[TP2000]

As others have pointed out—repeatedly—the current state of the box office isn’t a uniquely Disney problem.

True, but Disney does it better than anyone else.

 

[LittleBuford]

I'm not making a substantive claim, I'm talking about branding. Most people over the age of 35 aren't constantly online and the only time they'd see a mask like that is at Pride.

Most people over the age of 35 are far likelier to be constantly online than at Pride. You’re twisting yourself in knots trying to make an untenable point.

 

[TP2000]

Since you have such a genuine concern for corporate boo boos and for Barbie...

Warner Bros. U.S. Responds To Barbenheimer Criticism Out Of Japan – Update

Warner Bros Japan has criticized the U.S. team's social posts about "Barbenheimer," and the U.S. company apologized.

deadline.com

I imagine some clueless summer intern at Warners who is majoring in Communications at USC just lost her job summer internship.

But then, when the average 20 year old today doesn't even know what WWII was, or who we fought, or why, can you blame her? She was just doing her job. And she got Likes. This is literally the worst thing ever and it's patriarchy that they fired her.

 

[LittleBuford]

As one should be as a movie viewer.

Now, let's say you post in a thread titled what this one is, where the first post is "figured we could create a thread to discuss all things Disney, and their box office performance, instead of littering the various threads."
Would you be shocked if a focus a lot of the time was on box office results of movies' performances?

Perhaps @BuddyThomas is confused, as I am, by the fact that the box-office talk continues to dominate the other threads as well.

 

[TP2000]

I think you’re making rather too many assumptions about the attitudes of, and even who constitutes, these “longtime core customers”.

I think Disney's longtime core customers are American parents with young children.

Who do you think Disney's longtime core customers are?

That would be self-censorship and appeasement.

That may be. And as an old gay man who was alive and dating* when it was illegal to do so, I'm not entirely opposed to that argument.

But it would also be financial suicide if Disney continues on that path.

Thus the conundrum, how does Disney go forward? Do they keep trying to be the ones to re-educate the unstylish parents in unstylish neighborhoods in unstylish states, or do they let some other media company be be the one to create the world of the year 2035 and beyond and just try to sell movie tickets to suburban families in 2023?

Because if they keep on this current path of losing an average of $100 Million per tentpole movie, Disney won't make it to 2035 to find out.

*We should put the word dating in winky air quotes in my case, for at least the Johnson/Nixon/Ford/Carter era. And summers during Reagan into Bush I era.

 

[LittleBuford]

Because if they keep on this current path of losing an average of $100 Million per tentpole movie, Disney won't make it to 2035 to find out.

Disney was No. 1 at the box office for seven consecutive years between 2016 and 2022. It held the top spot for 2023 as recently as a month ago before Universal overtook it. I’m not sure why we should draw more conclusions from what you describe as “this current path” than from the last decade overall.

 

[TP2000]

Disney was No. 1 at the box office for seven consecutive years between 2016 and 2022. It held the top spot for 2023 as recently as a month ago before Universal overtook it. I’m not sure why we should draw more conclusions from what you describe as “this current path” than from the last decade overall.

You are forgetting to add that when you include Disney's mega-bloated budgets for their mega-budget movies, they've lost a lot of money.

 

[LittleBuford]

You are forgetting to add that when you include Disney's mega-bloated budgets for their mega-budget movies, they've lost a lot of money.

Your point was about Disney’s share of the audience, which is measured in ticket sales.

 

[TP2000]

Your point was about Disney’s share of the audience, which is measured in ticket sales.

Exactly. Disney's modest-to-disastrous ticket sales this summer are unable to cover the costs of their bloated budgets.

This is just basic math; a 60/40 split of the domestic/overseas box office against the production/marketing budgets. And I hate math.

 

[LittleBuford]

Exactly. Disney's modest-to-disastrous ticket sales this summer are unable to cover the costs of their bloated budgets.

This is just basic math; a 60/40 split of the domestic/overseas box office against the production/marketing budgets. And I hate math.

View attachment 734607

As I said, I see no good reason to ignore the larger context.