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

[TP2000]

But this is a fansite, not a forum for Disney accountants and executives. Most of the threads on any given topic are concerned with our experience of Disney’s products as fans, not with how much money those products generate for the company. Why should the movie subforum be any different?

While I get your point, I think you could make a valid argument that if Disney parks forums had daily and weekly releases of how many people bought Lightning Lane tickets for the new rides, versus how many people attended the parks each day with historical data on how many people attended each day in previous years, you could have similar criticism of those rides and parks in other forums here too.

And talk about one helluva fun discussion that would be if we had fairly accurate daily financial data and audience feedback scores for Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, Tron Lightcycle, Moana's Way of Water, Harmonious, KiteTails, etc., etc.

The movie business still has a lot of accounting that is unknown to us, but there is still box office data dumping daily from movie chains and reputable industry sources that give us nearly instantaneous data on how the free market is reacting to Disney movies.

That makes this weird little subforum of a "fan" community very different. And I think it's fascinating, really.

 

[DKampy]

Except in 2023 they're not selling VHS, DVD, blu-ray, 4k disc, or digital, and the only customer they have for streaming rights is themselves.

Disney nuked all the other windows that used to provide post-theatrical revenue streams. Unless a piece of content is directly creating Disney+ subscribers (or at least preventing existing Disney+ subscribers from churning out), then the theatrical window is all they've got.

There are people on this very thread who have watched it digitally

 

[CaptainAmerica]

There are people on this very thread who have watched it digitally

For the love of Pete. "Nobody does that anymore" doesn't mean LITERALLY NOBODY, ZERO PEOPLE, NOT A SINGLE PERSON IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. It's a figure of speech.

 

[DKampy]

And has made two very expensive Disney reboots/remakes that were intended to start franchises and neither got out of the gate.

I do like Chicago…by the way.

But perhaps he needs to disassociate with Miranda on his next time out?

Was The Little Mermaid intended as a franchise.. I have not heard that

 

[DKampy]

For the love of Pete. "Nobody does that anymore" doesn't mean LITERALLY NOBODY, ZERO PEOPLE, NOT A SINGLE PERSON IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE. It's a figure of speech.

Still… you have no idea yourself how many people are watching… there is more people then you think…there are windows for a reason

 

[TP2000]

Looking over the last 20 or so pages.

If I have it right, this thread is to discuss Disney’s box office performance yet when it is discussed there is an objection over that fact?

Over discussing the very topic of this thread?

Yes. Don't challenge that logic either.

So instead, I just chat here about the broader topic and post occasional box office facts and data about Disney's box office performance. It seems to anger some folks less that way, but still gets the facts and data out there into the discussion.

Like today's data on Monday July 31st, Haunted Mansion's first weekday after a very floppy weekend debut. It was Down 62%, which is a bigger than normal drop for the first weekdays after a big budget movie opens on a summer weekend.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

Except in 2023 they're not selling VHS, DVD, blu-ray, 4k disc, or digital, and the only customer they have for streaming rights is themselves.

Disney nuked all the other windows that used to provide post-theatrical revenue streams. Unless a piece of content is directly creating Disney+ subscribers (or at least preventing existing Disney+ subscribers from churning out), then the theatrical window is all they've got.

None of us can say what the dollar value of streaming revenue versus individual sales is.

Music and video games have shifted to subscription based models for a large portion of the customer base. There has to be a reason.

Without access to hard data we can't say the current model is better or worse than the old one, but movies absolutely do generate revenue beyond the theatrical release.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

None of us can say what the dollar value of streaming revenue versus individual sales is.

The dollar value of streaming attributable to individual titles is zero, unless it's a title that drives incremental subscribers.

 

[TP2000]

They still sell all that stuff. They also sell it via pay TV channels like TBS who play Marvel and SW movies non stop

But the numbers are ridiculously small, and shrinking by the month now into the mid 2020's.

In the past year, Disney has sold less than $4 Million worth of DVD's and BluRays for last summer's Lightyear.

Based on Lightyear's theater box office, you can extrapolate that they might sell about $8 or $9 Million in discs for Little Mermaid '23.

Those are nickels and dimes when the movie budget was $250 Million and they spent $140 Million on marketing.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

The dollar value of streaming attributable to individual titles is zero, unless it's a title that drives incremental subscribers.

You're trying to spin this as theatrical revenue being the only thing of value which just isn't the case.

 

[TP2000]

This headline seems to sum it up nicely.

Haunted Mansion Bombed So Hard That Disney Should Stop Making Reboots

It has never been more clear than it is now. Haunted Mansion is proof that Disney needs to give up on reboots and look at new source material.

www.giantfreakinrobot.com

 

[Hawkeye_2018]

Seems like everyone saw HM bombing a mile away except some folks at Disney

 

[TP2000]

Elemental has now earned more than the first Spider-Verse film.

Elemental has if you do not adjust for the past 5 years of inflation. And if you consider that Elemental had a production budget twice that of Spider-Verse 2018, it's even less flattering.

Thus far, Elemental has lost about $85 Million at the global box office. Spider-Verse '18 made a profit of about $35 Million at the box office.

Most of these financial figures have been adjusted for inflation, except for 2018 International Box Office due to various exchange rates. The final Worldwide Box Office is adjusted for inflation because it's all counted in US dollars.

That’s called rebuilding the brand.

I agree with that. The Pixar brand is damaged in the mind's of many of its core customers, and thus weak in the marketplace. Disney did that to themselves with purposeful decisions over the past few years, some of them made in a panic during Covid so it's understandable. But they don't get a free pass from me on all of their bad decisions regarding the Pixar brand.

Pixar is a damaged and weakened brand. It desperately needs rebuilding. Elemental will lose a lot of money, but at least it's a start.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

The trailers for Haunted Mansion did absolutely nothing for me.

Maybe a big piece, and this might fall under the category of "duh, obvious" feedback, but hire people with good creative track records and let them take risks.

When they made Pirates of the Caribbean it wasn't just being lazy. It wasn't just, this is based on a popular ride so it will do good. They hired top notch writers and a director and ended up with a classic hit.

It's an IP inspired movie but was allowed to be original, with the Jack Sparrow character in particular.

 

[TP2000]

The little mermaid won’t launch anything. It’s a simple remake in a too long of a line of remakes.

Quickly and quietly it goes away.

I'm going to set an alarm on my phone for September, 2024 to see how many DVD's Little Mermaid sold in the past year.

My bet is that the number of DVD/BluRay sales combined will be something below $7 Million. That's not launchable.

 

[TP2000]

Seems like everyone saw HM bombing a mile away except some folks at Disney

Haunted Mansion cost $155 Million to produce. If you add a modest (for Disney) marketing budget of $75 Million for the film, it needs to make roughly $450 Million at the global box office to break even.

So far it's only made $35 Million globally in the past six days. Only $415 Million more to go to break even.

 

[TP2000]

Have fun at Eddie V's - love that view of the cove from there!

Huh??? How???

But yes, it's a family favorite. My sister and I have a summer tradition to take her kids out to dinner there. Fabulous.

EDIT: Oh, I see it now.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Disney sold $820 million in DVD/downloads FY2022.

Not even close to “nobody.”

 

[MisterPenguin]

Except in 2023 they're not selling VHS, DVD, blu-ray, 4k disc, or digital, and the only customer they have for streaming rights is themselves.

Disney nuked all the other windows that used to provide post-theatrical revenue streams. Unless a piece of content is directly creating Disney+ subscribers (or at least preventing existing Disney+ subscribers from churning out), then the theatrical window is all they've got.

You are right that Disney nuked all their post-theatrical pay windows, except of course, for D+, whose sub money get allocated to the movie on their ledgers.

But that was during and shortly after the pandemic.

Disney made a very clear move to delay the time of theatrical release to landing on D+. Then they put back some of the pay windows: Digital, PPV, physical media, etc...

So, things have changed. See below...

Disney sold $820 million in DVD/downloads FY2022.

Not even close to “nobody.”

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Disney sold $820 million in DVD/downloads FY2022.

Not even close to “nobody.”

In 2019 it was $1.7 billion.