Lilo and Stitch live-action remake

[Sirwalterraleigh]

My guess would be a refocus with live action movies. Relatively more recent movies. Strong fan bases. Less princess focused (maybe with the exception of Princess And The Frog, because she has such a strong parks presence so I can see Disney wanting to renew interest in Tiana with this next generation.) Heartwarming and uncontroversial, animal characters a plus. My bet would be:

- Up as an absolute top contender. (The internet apparently agrees so much that it’s very hard to tell if this is already in production or not. Google AI says it is, I think based on the number of fan AI trailers. I’m pretty sure it’s not though.)

- The Nightmare Before Christmas, unless the CGI looks to be prohibitively expensive.

- Ratatouille

- Frozen (Ok, a princess movie, but this is Frozen we’re talking about)

- The Aristocats, even though it’s older. Cat factor and cruise line tie-in. Supposedly already in development, maybe?

- The Incredibles, maybe with more focus on the kids a la Spy Kids

- Hercules, as I hear this has a big fan base although I don’t think it did well in theaters. It would be a visually cool movie too. Also supposedly already in development, maybe?

- Coco

They still need to kill this…nothing has changed

But they’ll run it into the ground because it’s mindless and risk averse

Definitely a Hollywood problem

 

[Disney Irish]

Were they marketed & merchandised all that well for said theatrical release? Were they released in the theater at a time where folks would for sure be spending big at the movies, to make up losses of films that weren’t successful? That’s the core of that issue. And again, it didn’t help matters that again, these were all released during a pandemic.

If you were to say, start releasing these films again, during periods where we know there isn’t much huge money makers in the theater and they’re in desperate need of something good for that quarter that’ll be a guaranteed hit, That’s the time you do it.

I knew about them, so obviously they were marketed enough in my theaters for me to notice them. But for others, I can't say. I'm not even that aware of the Studio Ghibli ones being marketed very well other than a small display in the theaters I go to. So on average I don't think very many of any studios rereleases do very well.

Either way I don't believe very many rereleases make huge money. There are exceptions of course, but that is not the rule, so "hit" is relative here.

 

[DisneyHead123]

They still need to kill this…nothing has changed

But they’ll run it into the ground because it’s mindless and risk averse

Definitely a Hollywood problem

I wouldn’t mind seeing a live action of a few select movies - Nightmare Before Christmas would probably top my list. But I agree it would be very easy to get into overkill (and as a family movie, I don’t know that other selections would have the appeal of Stitch. There are a few I would personally like to see, like Up, but they wouldn’t interest my son.)

 

[DisneyHead123]

No live action remakes of PIXAR movies, please. I'm sure Iger is drooling over the idea, though...

Ooooh. You know I didn’t even make the connection that only Disney movies have been live action, that explains a lot.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I wouldn’t mind seeing a live action of a few select movies - Nightmare Before Christmas would probably top my list. But I agree it would be very easy to get into overkill (and as a family movie, I don’t know that other selections would have the appeal of Stitch. There are a few I would personally like to see, like Up, but they wouldn’t interest my son.)

We passed overkill already

And the smart thing is to slow these down to once every 5 years at least

But they have to chase money and easy scores are always the top priority

 

[Disney Irish]

We passed overkill already

And the smart thing is to slow these down to once every 5 years at least

But they have to chase money and easy scores are always the top priority

Lets see what happens after Moana next year. Right now there are none in production beyond that, so hopefully that means they have slowed down or stopped them completely (for now).

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Lets see what happens after Moana next year. Right now there are none in production beyond that, so hopefully that means they have slowed down or stopped them completely (for now).

Fantastic four is gonna push them in the direction your describing as well…I’m
Thinking

 

[Disney Irish]

Fantastic four is gonna push them in the direction your describing as well…I’m
Thinking

I doubt that, as the MCU is different and several other movies already in production so they aren't pausing that anytime soon in my opinion.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I wouldn’t mind seeing a live action of a few select movies - Nightmare Before Christmas would probably top my list.

It was a deliberate stylistic choice to have Nightmare be stop motion animation and not live action or 2D animated

It's essential to the movie's look and feel as per the creator's vision

Doing it in live action (or realistically, mostly CGI) would be pointless and ignore why it existed in the first place.

If you want a stage adaptation like Beetlejuice got, that's different.

 

[DisneyHead123]

It was a deliberate stylistic choice to have Nightmare be stop motion animation and not live action or 2D animated

It's essential to the movie's look and feel as per the creator's vision

Doing it in live action (or realistically, mostly CGI) would be pointless and ignore why it existed in the first place.

If you want a stage adaptation like Beetlejuice got, that's different.

I guess it depends on whether or not the creators of the film have ongoing objections.

If they do, I certainly respect that.

If they don’t, I am a Philistine when it comes to movie visuals and the change from stop motion to live action is not going to hamper my enjoyment in the slightest, lol, so I’m all for it.

 

[Charlie The Chatbox Ghost]

They've done it pretty much every year with various movies. For example this year I believe they did a few of the Pixar pandemic releases that were D+ exclusives like Luca. And again they didn't much money.

And the issue is they don’t bother telling anyone! They gotta market it more. Screening old movies is such an underutilized market and offers people an experience they can’t get at home. But I suppose there’s a reason they aren’t marketing the airings much?

 

[Nevermore525]

They did the Pixar re-release of films from January to March of 2024 for Soul, Turning Red, and Luca. Each movie got around a month in the theaters. Company announced that early December 2023. Soul got $950K domestically, Turning Red got around $1.4M and Luca got around $1.3M

This spring they released Revenge of the Sith for its 20 years and it got another $34M domestically in a week.

They also have a D23 event going across the country for 30 years of “A Goofy Movie” that’s been mostly sold out.

 

[Disney Irish]

I guess it depends on whether or not the creators of the film have ongoing objections.

If they do, I certainly respect that.

If they don’t, I am a Philistine when it comes to movie visuals and the change from stop motion to live action is not going to hamper my enjoyment in the slightest, lol, so I’m all for it.

As far as I’m aware Burton didn’t even want a sequel and completely ruled out a live action movie. So I doubt it’ll ever happen.

 

[Disney Irish]

And the issue is they don’t bother telling anyone! They gotta market it more. Screening old movies is such an underutilized market and offers people an experience they can’t get at home. But I suppose there’s a reason they aren’t marketing the airings much?

Disney did advertise the recent ones, it’s just not getting a huge marketing campaign, and for good reason, like a new movie. It’ll be posted on social media, an article in Deadline and Hollywood Reporter, probably a D23 media notice, maybe some posters and a small display for the theaters, and that’s about it. So I’m not sure what you’re expecting, but they aren’t going to have a full marketing campaign with tv ads and such like it’s a new movie, they are rereleases. And I believe we even talked about it here in the movie forum. So if you missed it then you're probably not paying attention or not following the right places, I suggest maybe following Disney Studios on Instagram as they usually post it there.

Now I don't know about where you live, but in my area which is a large metro area with almost 8M people, there were a few theaters that their whole business model was playing old and recent rereleased movies, they were called second run theaters. But they all closed back in the 2010s because they never got enough business. So I don't think there is as much of a market for rereleases as you think there is. The $4M ($3.8M to be exact, I looked it up) you guys mentioned for Princess Mononoke is nothing when compared to larger new films released at the time, even Snow White as bad as it performed did more that weekend bringing in more than triple that at $14.3M. It just doesn't make sense from a financial standpoint for Disney or any other studio to invest heavily into rereleases like this, there just isn't a huge market for it. It has its followers, such as yourself, but beyond that its not getting huge amounts of business and in many cases costs the studios more to market it than they actually bring in.

 

[Disney Irish]

They did the Pixar re-release of films from January to March of 2024 for Soul, Turning Red, and Luca. Each movie got around a month in the theaters. Company announced that early December 2023. Soul got $950K domestically, Turning Red got around $1.4M and Luca got around $1.3M

This spring they released Revenge of the Sith for its 20 years and it got another $34M domestically in a week.

They also have a D23 event going across the country for 30 years of “A Goofy Movie” that’s been mostly sold out.

They are hit or miss, for a rerelease to do well (in my opinion) it has to have a huge following in the first place. Your two examples are a perfect example of that. A Goofy Movie wasn't a huge financial success when first released, it did ~$35M total. But it gained a huge following since and because a huge nostalgia thing. That is why its doing fairly well in its special event rerelease, same with RotS.

They have to be events and for something that has a huge following to begin with, not just some rerelease of a random film from the vault that is already being streamed.

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

A Goofy Movie wasn't a huge financial success when first released, it did ~$35M total. But it gained a huge following since and because a huge nostalgia thing. That is why its doing fairly well in its special event rerelease, same with RotS.

They have to be events and for something that has a huge following to begin with, not just some rerelease of a random film from the vault that is already being streamed.

I’d argue most of the Disney classics do infact have a following for the impact that they made and the talent involved. That and all 3 of those Pixar movies were generally well received aswell. Constantly I see them (both) spoken about and showcased.

And as a I mention previously, much of any movie’s success (this goes for A Goofy Movie’s recent success aswell) is due to Disney’s huge marketing & merchandising campaign behind it. Without that though, no film really has any big chance of being successful or truly making a profit back for the company.

 

[Disney Irish]

I’d argue most of the Disney classics do infact have a following for the impact that they made and the talent involved. That and all 3 of those Pixar movies were generally well received aswell. Constantly I see them (both) spoken about and showcased.

And as a I mention previously, much of any movie’s success (this goes for A Goofy Movie’s recent success aswell) is due to Disney’s huge marketing & merchandising campaign behind it. Without that though, no film really has any big chance of being successful or truly making a profit back for the company.

I still think you’re overestimating how much of a market there is for these rereleases. Also I never saw one piece of advertisement for Goofy Movie in any of my local theaters, and they are showing it. So I don’t think it has as big of a marketing push as you think outside of the Disney bubble, ie normie’s aren’t the ones being marketed to, only Disney fanatics.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

A Goofy Movie live-action remake confirmed!

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

I still think you’re overestimating how much of a market there is for these rereleases. Also I never saw one piece of advertisement for Goofy Movie in any of my local theaters, and they are showing it. So I don’t think it has as big of a marketing push as you think outside of the Disney bubble, ie normie’s aren’t the ones being marketed to, only Disney fanatics.

A Goofy Movie is being shown for a D23 special event and only select theaters & venues. It’s not a wide release basically. But A Goofy Movie in general absolutely has had a big marketing push. Disneyland, the Powerline Max popcorn buckets and such. BoxLunch, tons of themed merch for it. Not to mention social media posts dedicated to it. In the end, it’s not part of the re-release scheduling ‘but’ it has had much greater success and recognition simply due to the marketing campaign and it didn’t need a live action remake like Lilo & Stitch (and other classics, IMO, needlessly remade) to prove this. Bringing it back to Lilo & Stitch in particular, rereleasing the animated on a wide release plus the big merchandising/marketing push would’ve been enough I feel for it to really make a profit again. But ultimately, of course, that’s not what Disney’s doing atm, clearly.

 

[Disney Irish]

A Goofy Movie is being shown for a D23 special event and only select theaters & venues. It’s not a wide release basically. But A Goofy Movie in general absolutely has had a big marketing push. Disneyland, the Powerline Max popcorn buckets and such. BoxLunch, tons of themed merch for it. Not to mention social media posts dedicated to it. In the end, it’s not part of the re-release scheduling ‘but’ it has had much greater success and recognition simply due to the marketing campaign and it didn’t need a live action remake like Lilo & Stitch (and other classics, IMO, needlessly remade) to prove this. Bringing it back to Lilo & Stitch in particular, rereleasing the animated on a wide release plus the big merchandising/marketing push would’ve been enough I feel for it to really make a profit again. But ultimately, of course, that’s not what Disney’s doing atm, clearly.

I think you’re missing the point, outside the “Disney Bubble” where is Goofy Movie being marketed? It’s not, that is the point. It’s targeted marketing for a target audience. This is the same with any of the rereleases, its target marketing for target audience, ie they ain’t spending like they are a wide release movie because they are not, they are rereleases and only a target audience is going to go not the general audience like a new release. It has limited appeal with limited box office returns.