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

[BrianLo]

I call for a straight moratorium on AI search results. I’m not enjoying these walls of text prompts, is anyone else actually and I’m missing the mood?

It might be a tool to help with neurodivergence and communication. I actually don’t mind it if people need to use it to help author their points for them well.

But I skip past and usually report every Grok search result I encounter. Fun quips about a Wonka machine or not.

 

[Trauma]

I call for a straight moratorium on AI search results. I’m not enjoying these walls of text prompts, is anyone else actually and I’m missing the mood?

It might be a tool to help with neurodivergence and communication. I actually don’t mind it if people need to use it to help author their points for them well.

But I skip past and usually report every Grok search result I encounter. Fun quips about a Wonka machine or not.

Report them for what though ?

I don’t enjoy them either, but it’s not really that different than posting a link to an article is it ?

 

[brideck]

I saw Black Bag last week…I enjoyed it…..Saw Novacane today….I thought that was a fun Movie… violent but still felt like light escapism…. Saving Snow White till next week….I did not know long those would stay in theater…People say they want original movies, but when a studio produces one… no one watches it

Regrettably I haven't made it to the theater at all this weekend. Hoping to get to The Monkey and The Assessment before they vanish on me. We also want to try to catch Mufasa before it's gone this week -- still haven't made the time for it yet, just way too much indie/international stuff we've wanted to see lately.

 

[BrianLo]

Report them for what though ?

I don’t enjoy them either, but it’s not really that different than posting a link to an article is it ?

It’s currently against the spirit of the TOS. Which has been misinterpreted. AI is actually ‘ok’ for helping to find your voice, not post search results. Whether they are labeled as Grok or not, sometimes they aren’t.

A link I can skip past, a wall of text is more irritating. I guess at least hide it behind a spoiler tag labeled Grok results so I can scroll similarly by.

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[TalkingHead]

1. Reboots? What reboots? Star Wars and Indiana Jones were revived. But there have been no reboots.

Live action remakes operate on the same principle as reboots. What’s the substantive difference?

 

[BrianLo]

Live action remakes operate on the same principle as reboots. What’s the substantive difference?

Canon continuity.

But the line gets awfully blurred. Like video games that blur the line between remasters and remakes.

 

[TalkingHead]

Canon continuity.

But the line gets awfully blurred. Like video games that blur the line between remasters and remakes.

Horror reboots rarely mean anything more than a new movie with the same general story and title which sounds like these live action things.

Also worth noting Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo were not hits, either in theaters or on streaming. Bambi was canceled. They’ve probably gotten the message that early Disney features are not popular fare for modern moviegoing audiences, for a variety of reasons.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Where is the attempt to rehabilitate and champion Perlmutter coming from? It certainly isn’t coming from film or comic fans or historians. Is it just political? Is there some YouTube commentator pushing it?

It’s only in your mind, I used him as a throw away example of how dissent is needed at Disney, you ignored the other 90% of my post and latched onto my one line about a dissenting voice like Perlmutter being good for a company, that’s it… no praise, no attempt to rehabilitate, no championing, just an example of how things typically go better when opposing voices are both included in the process.

 

[Trauma]

It’s only in your mind, I used him as a throw away example of how dissent is needed at Disney, you ignored the other 90% of my post and latched onto my one line about a dissenting voice like Perlmutter being good for a company, that’s it… no praise, no attempt to rehabilitate, no championing, just an example of how things typically go better when opposing voices are both included in the process.

The problem with this is as soon an opposing voice appears things go sideways real fast. How they make it past the first 5 minutes of anything without being accused of micro aggressions, or having everyone else leave in protest, is beyond me.

 

[TP2000]

Here's a fun comparison chart gang, just for giggles!...

Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Presented in Technicolor
Vs.
Rachel Zegler's Snow White, Presented by the HR Department

What's surprising to me is that after this rather dismal debut weekend for Snow White, it might not even match the domestic box office of the 1937 original not adjusted for 88 years of inflation from the depths of the Great Depression!

Will 2025's Snow White actually get to $184 Million at the domestic box office after this weekend's floppy debut? It looks like a very steep hill to climb for that to happen, but I guess its potentially doable with a sharp box office turnaround.

And adjusted for inflation, the 1937 original did 1.5 Billion at the box office. Miss White was the original Barbie mega-hit, which allowed Walt to build the Burbank campus and the media empire that defined American culture for decades to come and built a little thing called Disneyland.

But for now, let's just party like its 1937 and see if the new Snow White can match the original in 1937 dollars.

 

[TP2000]

Fun Facts about 1937:

A 1937 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Sedan cost $650
Movie tickets for first run films in big cities cost 25 cents
A gallon of gas was 22 cents
A gallon of milk was 10 cents
A loaf of bread was 9 cents
Ground beef was 12 cents per pound

And Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves pulled in $185 Million at the box office, one 25 cent movie ticket at a time! Incredible.

 

[BrianLo]

Here's a fun comparison chart gang, just for giggles!...

Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Presented in Technicolor
Vs.
Rachel Zegler's Snow White, Presented by the HR Department

What's surprising to me is that after this rather dismal debut weekend for Snow White, it might not even match the domestic box office of the 1937 original not adjusted for 88 years of inflation from the depths of the Great Depression!

View attachment 849517

Will 2025's Snow White actually get to $184 Million at the domestic box office after this weekend's floppy debut? It looks like a very steep hill to climb for that to happen, but I guess its potentially doable with a sharp box office turnaround.

And adjusted for inflation, the 1937 original did 1.5 Billion at the box office. Miss White was the original Barbie mega-hit, which allowed Walt to build the Burbank campus and the media empire that defined American culture for decades to come and built a little thing called Disneyland.

But for now, let's just party like its 1937 and see if the new Snow White can match the original in 1937 dollars.

It will not hit 184 million in nominal dollars. That’s out after this weekends opening and CinemaScore. Though Snows’ original figures are a very complicated multi decade long tally consisting of many theatrical re-releases.

Some good comps for you for next weekend are Dumbo (a benchmark it won’t hit), but also Alice Through the looking Glass and The Marvels.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

If I was betting man I’d currently set the over/under on this movie at $350 million worldwide, even then I think I’d take the under.

It’ll be interesting to see if it does reasonable numbers next week or if it’ll drop like a rock, anything more than the average 40% drop and it’s cooked.

 

[TP2000]

It will not hit 184 million in nominal dollars. That’s out after this weekends opening and CinemaScore. Though Snows’ original figures are a very complicated multi decade long tally consisting of many theatrical re-releases.

Some good comps for you for next weekend are Dumbo (a benchmark it won’t hit), but also Alice Through the looking Glass and The Marvels.

Ohhh!!! I hadn't thought that the $185 Million is a decades long total racking up multiple re-releases. Great point!

Welp, that just means I'll have to go a Googling for the 1937 first-run tally. I was also surprised at how tiny the overseas box office was. I imagine most, if not all, came from the UK. But apparently American blockbusters weren't playing overseas at that time. I didn't realize it was so limited to the USA!

 

[BrianLo]

Ohhh!!! I hadn't thought that the $185 Million is a decades long total racking up multiple re-releases. Great point!

Welp, that just means I'll have to go a Googling for the 1937 first-run tally. I was also surprised at how tiny the overseas box office was. I imagine most, if not all, came from the UK. But apparently American blockbusters weren't playing overseas at that time. I didn't realize it was so limited to the USA!

It did very well! Plus continues to make money for eons and is the starting staple of the Disney Princess line, something worth 10’s of billions.

But Disneyland was built on the back of Cinderella. Then nearly crashed on the back of Aurora.

 

[TP2000]

Okay, an 8 second Google search returned this info...

Snow White debuted in LA in December, 1937 but it wasn't released nationally until February, 1938. It was the highest grossing movie of 1938, and it made $8 Million domestically that year and $2 Million overseas, on a budget of $1.5 Million.

Adjusted for inflation, that's a budget of $33 Million and a global box office of $223 Million in today's money.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Fun Facts about 1937:

A 1937 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Sedan cost $650
Movie tickets for first run films in big cities cost 25 cents
A gallon of gas was 22 cents
A gallon of milk was 10 cents
A loaf of bread was 9 cents
Ground beef was 12 cents per pound

And Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves pulled in $185 Million at the box office, one 25 cent movie ticket at a time! Incredible.

I am in more of a pixie duster mood these days, but I must say, it seems like this new Snow White misses the spirit of the original in the same way the dull grey Peter Pan and Wendy missed the magical spirit of Disney’s OG Peter Pan. The original Snow was presumably modeled after a Golden Age Hollywood starlet with pin curls and a dramatic, breathy voice. The 1930s vibe just seems so central to the movie. Nothing wrong with a politically minded girl boss princess with a sensible bob, but it should have been a spinoff based on Snow White’s daughter or something like that.

 

[TP2000]

One other thing just hit me...

The 1937 debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was a big night for Hollywood in general, not just for Walt Disney. The economy had crashed again into a severe recession in 1936-37 and the movie industry (and a downtrodden nation) needed a huge hit. Walt Disney delivered it for them, and the rest is now history and why we're here on this discussion forum in the fantastically future year of 2025.

And Disney owns an exact replica of the Carthay Circle Theater themed inside to Snow White and has a giant 2,000 seat luxury theater sitting empty 50 yards down a fake 1930's Hollywood Blvd.

And yet they didn't use this DCA facility for the premiere and splashy publicity party?!? Why?!?

I have to think they had a plan to host the Snow White premiere at DCA, using the Hyperion Theater as the movie venue and the Carthay Circle Restaurant and Lounge as the party pad after the debut. And the private 1901 Lounge could have been used as the VIP Lounge where Miss Zegler held court for the media in one of those curtained off little banquettes near the bar.

But.... NOPE! Nothing. The "premiere" was closed to the press and was basically a non-event.

How weird. I'd bet two churros there's a story there, and the DCA venues were proposed for the premiere at one point.

 

[Agent H]

One other thing just hit me...

The 1937 debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was a big night for Hollywood in general, not just for Walt Disney. The economy had crashed again into a severe recession in 1936-37 and the movie industry (and a downtrodden nation) needed a huge hit. Walt Disney delivered it for them, and the rest is now history and why we're here on this discussion forum in the fantastically future year of 2025.

And Disney owns an exact replica of the Carthay Circle Theater themed inside to Snow White and has a giant 2,000 seat luxury theater sitting empty just down a fake Hollywood Blvd.

And yet they didn't use this DCA facility for the premiere and splashy publicity party?!? Why?!?

I have to think they had a plan to host the Snow White premiere at DCA, using the Hyperion Theater as the movie venue and the Carthay Circle Restaurant and Lounge as the party pad after the debut. And the private 1901 Lounge could have been used as the VIP Lounge where Miss Zegler held court for the media in one of those curtained off little banquettes near the bar.

But.... NOPE! Nothing. The "premiere" was closed to the press and was basically a non-event.

How weird. I'd bet two churros there's a story there, and the DCA venues were proposed for the premiere at one point.

Now that is a good point.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

One other thing just hit me...

The 1937 debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was a big night for Hollywood in general, not just for Walt Disney. The economy had crashed again into a severe recession in 1936-37 and the movie industry (and a downtrodden nation) needed a huge hit. Walt Disney delivered it for them, and the rest is now history and why we're here on this discussion forum in the fantastically future year of 2025.

And Disney owns an exact replica of the Carthay Circle Theater themed inside to Snow White and has a giant 2,000 seat luxury theater sitting empty 50 yards down a fake 1930's Hollywood Blvd.

And yet they didn't use this DCA facility for the premiere and splashy publicity party?!? Why?!?

I have to think they had a plan to host the Snow White premiere at DCA, using the Hyperion Theater as the movie venue and the Carthay Circle Restaurant and Lounge as the party pad after the debut. And the private 1901 Lounge could have been used as the VIP Lounge where Miss Zegler held court for the media in one of those curtained off little banquettes near the bar.

But.... NOPE! Nothing. The "premiere" was closed to the press and was basically a non-event.

How weird. I'd bet two churros there's a story there, and the DCA venues were proposed for the premiere at one point.

I was wondering this exact thing when they announced the weird Spanish castle premiere. It made so much sense...

The Carthay Circle Theatre is SO important to the Disney company they built it as the central symbol for their themepark (after some work to get to that point). They're recreated the film tha is the reason for that connection and not a SINGLE peep of the physical space they created? They could have recreated the original opening night and made it a massive glamorous golden age of Hollywood themed premiere.

If, and meaning when, it was a conversation at some point, it's obvious the powers at be wanted to have as little as possible to do with the original because they wanted to modernize it.