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

[GimpYancIent]

It's about entertainment! People will go, see and pay if the product is quality and entertains them. Quote from the Wrap. ""Inside Out 2" is not only blowing past the high expectations exhibitors had for it with its $155 million opening, it is also proving to have the sort of legs that the biggest post-COVID shutdown box office hits like "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Barbie" have shown. In fact, a $96 million opening would represent a 38% drop from that opening weekend, the best ever second weekend hold for a film with a $150 million-plus opening weekend."

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Moana is one of my all time favorites so I’m hoping they do it justice with the sequel. I’m most excited/nervous about that one.

We’ve talked about finally watching the first one. In fact, the subject came up after the walk-through water attraction.

We’ll see. I tend to bore easily.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

We’ve talked about finally watching the first one. In fact, the subject came up after the walk-through water attraction.

We’ll see. I tend to bore easily.

You haven’t watched Moana?

The story is great but the music is what sets it apart for me, it’s amazing.

 

[bwr827]

You haven’t watched Moana?

The story is great but the music is what sets it apart for me, it’s amazing.

I took my son to see it on my birthday, his first theatre experience.

Soundtrack played all the way home — both of us singing along — and it remained on Spotify repeat in our house for weeks.

 

[Dranth]

I'd love for the Smart Set in Burbank to explain to us why Communist China got two new theme park resorts built there in the past 20 years. If the movies from Burbank aren't able to be screened in China, or get very little play if they do make it past the Communist censors, then what the heck was the point of spending Billions and Billions on theme parks there?

It isn't that hard to figure out, money.

China is a giant economy that was blowing up at the time and only going to get bigger. Something like 18% of the entire worlds population comes from China and they were developing a massive middle class. The real question is why on earth would you NOT want a park there from a business perspective?

I could see asking about the locations as that makes a big difference but you would need to go to the source on that one.

For example, Hong Kong has lost money nearly every year it has existed but we would need to ask Eisner why he selected it. Shanghai on the other hand has largely been a success and been making money so what exactly is the problem?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It’s a not so subtle Trojan horse into the market…

However, in their defense, Shanghai Disney is their first successful new resort launch since 1983. So it is working, it will just take a generation for that market to mature from their childhood trips to Disney adults.

I will also die on a hill that Hong Kong Disneyland is a total gem. Mostly because it’s basically just modeled after Disneyland proper in a beautiful location. Finally, finally, it seems to be finding its support base.

It was to keep the sweatshop regime happy.

Look deeper into the “Chinese middle class economy” and there’s no “there” there

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

You haven’t watched Moana?

The story is great but the music is what sets it apart for me, it’s amazing.

Other than SHINY I agree

Moana is a really excellent/draw

It has longterm legs.

 

[bwr827]

Other than SHINY I agree

Moana is a really excellent/draw

It has longterm legs.

Shiny is one of the best.

If you go deeper you’ll get it.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Shiny is one of the best.

If you go deeper you’ll get it.

It’s creepy…freaky and on mushrooms

To each their own

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I think it's safe to say at this point that Inside Out 2 will be the highest grossing movie of the summer.

Even if Deadpool 3 has the bigger opening weekend, I think it's R rating will put a ceiling on how much it'll earn, unless it too overperforms its already high expectations.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

The success of Inside Out 2, and it's initial exit polling, would suggest Disney+ was not as big a factor in hurting box office returns as previously thought.

If people really want to see something right away, they will. I don't think movies like Lightyear, Haunted Mansion or Wish would have fared substantially better without the streaming service. The streaming viewing numbers on some of these titles also don't suggest there were large swaths of people waiting for Disney+ and the arguments of how long the post theatrical window should be hardly seem relevant. Doesn't really matter if it's 90 days or 180 days, people either want to watch something or they don't.

The only titles we can conclusively say were impacted by Disney+ were the re-releases of movies already put on the service. Disney absolutely shot themselves in the foot by announcing prior to its release than Encanto would be on Disney+ 30 days after its theatrical start, but that was a rare exception where something truly became a phenomenon after enough people had watched it. Strange World certainly wasn't impacted or benefited by a similar release strategy.

 

[BrianLo]

I think it's safe to say at this point that Inside Out 2 will be the highest grossing movie of the summer.

Even if Deadpool 3 has the bigger opening weekend, I think it's R rating will put a ceiling on how much it'll earn, unless it too overperforms its already high expectations.

Agreed. It’s unreasonable to expect anything to hit these levels. 100 percent I still believe Moana is the bigger franchise, but it’s unreasonable to expect a performance anything like this out of it.

Deadpool absolutely is tracking for the bigger opening, but it’s missing a huge audience quadrant with its rating. Spider-Man is the Deadpool equivalent when the rating is lifted though and that had the ability to outdo this performance.

Frozen and Mario are also clearly bigger franchises… Because no one is questioning that Mario and Frozen are big enough to support dedicated lands, yet Inside out is hitting in that realm.

Maybe merchandise in the back end is the secret sauce? Frozen, Mario, Moana (princess lineup). But is inside out about to get an entire ‘land’ (Pavilion) snap approved by Iger?

 

[Disney Analyst]

Huge.

 

[ThemeParkTraveller]

After an unprecedented $100 million second weekend domestically (higher than the first film's opening weekend), Inside Out 2 is on track to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, beating Incredibles 2 domestically and Frozen 2 worldwide. Just insane after all the pessimism surrounding the box office slump of Disney's animated films post-pandemic.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Frozen and Mario are also clearly bigger franchises… Because no one is questioning that Mario and Frozen are big enough to support dedicated lands, yet Inside out is hitting in that realm.

Which fascinates me both because there was nothing to suggest the movie would do this well and I don't think Disney is prepared to comprehend or understand why it happened.

I would be fine if Inside Out 2 was just appreciated for being a nice movie that people liked and not turned into a "franchise" that gets run into the ground through over-exposure and corporate meddling. But we know that's not Disney.

 

[BrianLo]

The success of Inside Out 2, and it's initial exit polling, would suggest Disney+ was not as big a factor in hurting box office returns as previously thought.

If people really want to see something right away, they will. I don't think movies like Lightyear, Haunted Mansion or Wish would have fared substantially better without the streaming service. The streaming viewing numbers on some of these titles also don't suggest there were large swaths of people waiting for Disney+ and the arguments of how long the post theatrical window should be hardly seem relevant. Doesn't really matter if it's 90 days or 180 days, people either want to watch something or they don't.

The only titles we can conclusively say were impacted by Disney+ were the re-releases of movies already put on the service. Disney absolutely shot themselves in the foot by announcing prior to its release than Encanto would be on Disney+ 30 days after its theatrical start, but that was a rare exception where something truly became a phenomenon after enough people had watched it. Strange World certainly wasn't impacted or benefited by a similar release strategy.

I still think it was ‘a factor’. But not the only one. There were like ten different problems Disney was having with the box office all overlapping, of which quality was certainly one.

Encanto being the clear one out them that absolutely that movies theatrical run was majorly impacted by streaming. Plus of course the Pixar trio would have done a whole lot more than ‘nothing’.

What I think we have conclusively landed on is that it’s no longer a factor. I think they have completely unwound it. Strange World would have done nothing regardless. Elemental I think would have opened a lot stronger than it did and its performance we can kind of watch the I’ll wait for it audience start to show up in its run.

Wish clearly wasn’t held back by streaming as much as I wanted to think it was. I’m just not sure what exactly caused that movie to miss so bad. Every other one I think I can logically look back on and figure out. Wish was just so innocuous that I’m not sure why the baseline Princess audience ignored it. Wish I think was Disneys biggest disappointment because it was the least forseen. They were marketing it with confidence up until the final moments.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Huge.

After an unprecedented $100 million second weekend domestically (higher than the first film's opening weekend), Inside Out 2 is on track to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, beating Incredibles 2 domestically and Frozen 2 worldwide. Just insane after all the pessimism surrounding the box office slump of Disney's animated films post-pandemic.

Of the 6 movies to have better 2nd weekends, 3 were Avengers movies and 1 was Force Awakens.

This is performing like an Avengers movie. Despite being a sequel to an animated movie released 9 years ago that made about $860 million worldwide and was never a top seller in toy sales or other ancillary business.

It's crazy and certainly something Disney, and Pixar especially, have wanted for years.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

We’re once again burying the lead here

“Streaming hurting box office” was straight outta damage control

IO2 Is GOOD. It’s making money because it’s good and word spread.

Guardians 3 was good…so it did well last year.

Guess what wasn’t good? Line em up.

Life is not this complicated

 

[BrianLo]

Which fascinates me both because there was nothing to suggest the movie would do this well and I don't think Disney is prepared to comprehend or understand why it happened.

I would be fine if Inside Out 2 was just appreciated for being a nice movie that people liked and not turned into a "franchise" that gets run into the ground through over-exposure and corporate meddling. But we know that's not Disney.

This is not trying to open a can of worms…

The loosely female audience when they are not being pandered to with trying to be onboarded to a ‘male franchise’ is exceptionally strong. We saw it with Barbie, I think this is in part the same audience.

The female audience may be finally having its turn controlling the tentpole franchise flow moving forward, if studios ‘get’ what it is they actually want. Hollywood has always been male first and it’s great if they can take it four quad, but we are seeing exceptions to that rule.

As you are saying I think we’re all watching something that’s quite puzzling to all of us. I got Barbie. Inside Out was not in their top ten annual movies being streamed. Coco, Zootopia, Turning Red, Luca, Frozen, Moana, Encanto, Elemental are all franchises I think Disney ‘thought’ were much bigger.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Of the 6 movies to have better 2nd weekends, 3 were Avengers movies and 1 was Force Awakens.

This is performing like an Avengers movie. Despite being a sequel to an animated movie released 9 years ago that made about $860 million worldwide and was never a top seller in toy sales or other ancillary business.

It's crazy and certainly something Disney, and Pixar especially, have wanted for years.

The drop off is likely gonna be steep…but no doubt this will he one of Disneys biggest animated releases ever