Princess and the frog a failure?

[CJR]

The thing is that it might be SLIGHTLY lower at the box office than the more expensive Meet the Robinson's and Bolt (which was $150 million to make and no, it did not make its budget in the US), merchandise is selling much better than the merchandise for Bolt and/or Meet the Robinson's.

In terms of over all financial success goes, this film franchise may be the most profitable one for a Disney animated film in several years. While the CG films might have sold more tickets at the movie theater, this one is in line to sell more DVD's, dolls, clothes, plush, and other merchandise. In the long term this will be far more valuable than Disney's three previous CG movies.

Keep in mind, this film's not really to compare to The Lion King, it's to compare it to Chicken Little, Meet the Robinson's, and Bolt. The only one that really thrilled the company at the box office was Chicken Little, but it disappointed in the long run. If they made a Chicken Little 2, for example, it probably wouldn't make half of what the first one did. PatF has more of a long term success as the higher merchandise sales show.

 

[EpcotServo]

And the best movie of them all stayed on top at #1. Great to see fantastic movies like Avatar make money when some of the best movies of the summer bombed (Bruno and Funny People come to mind immediately).

Sherlock Holmes? I heard it got the weekend grab last I checked?

Personally-I liked Avatar, but all this best movie of the decade hype keeps making me roll my eyes. Great, yes. Greatest of all time, hardly. They used the name "Unobtainium" for pete's sake.
:lol:

 

[dxwwf3]

Mark my words, the movie will have legs and be around a long time.

Sorry, but it's going to be extremely lucky to make $100 million. Not exactly the type of legs that Disney was hoping for. Avatar dropping less than 3% in its 2nd weekend is real legs.

 

[dxwwf3]

Sherlock Holmes? I heard it got the weekend grab last I checked?

Personally-I liked Avatar, but all this best movie of the decade hype keeps making me roll my eyes. Great, yes. Greatest of all time, hardly. They used the name "Unobtainium" for pete's sake.
:lol:

Nope
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

Avatar made about $10 million more and only dropped about 3%.

And yes to me, Avatar is the best movie of the decade along with 2005's King Kong.

 

[EpcotServo]

Nope
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

Avatar made about $10 million more and only dropped about 3%.

And yes to me, Avatar is the best movie of the decade along with 2005's King Kong.

Hmm. Oh well, good for everyone. Personally I thought Sherlock Holmes had much better writing/acting/story than Avatar (Not that they could really be compared, I'm just talking on the field of "Popcorn Event Film"). Avatar for me, felt more like a well directed, well made, proof of concept for what you can do right with special effects and 3-D more than anything. A great event film to bring people back to theaters. I just need better story/writing, I mean Cameron's Abyss is for me much better than Avatar because it has great visuals AND great story and writing. Avatar felt kinda' sub-Abyss in terms of depth and story. I just can't give it best of the decade when your screenplay involves mostly lines like "Oh....My....God...", and "This is Awesome", and like I said, the Rocky And Bullwinkle mineral Unobtainium.
:lol:

I couldn't possibly do best of the decade, but my two picks of the year would be Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air.

 

[dxwwf3]

I couldn't possibly do best of the decade, but my two picks of the year would be Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air.

I though IB was great, but it obviously wasn't QT's best. And I haven't seen Up In The Air, but none of the trailers or ads look that interesting. After Juno, I'm very leery of any film by Jason Reitman. Hopefully it is more Thank You For Smoking (a slightly overrated, but harmless enough film) than Juno (an extremely painful 2 hours for me).

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Dumb as it sounds, the term does have some background in actual science.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

Engineers have long (since at least the 1950s[2]) used the term unobtainium when referring to unusual or costly materials, or when theoretically considering a material perfect for their needs in all respects save that it doesn't exist. By the 1990s, the term was widely used, including in formal engineering papers such as Towards unobtainium [new composite materials for space applications]. [3]

 

[tirian]

:brick:

Pinocchio, Fantasia, all the package films (e.g. The Three Caballeros), and Alice in Wonderland looked like failures, too. I'm not comparing PATF to Pinocchio, but you can't judge a movie's long-term power on its initial BO receipts. For that matter, Citizen Kane bombed in its first release.

And very few critics think Avatar is the best movie of the decade; most of them have actually complained about its predictable plot and praised only the special FX.

I do agree that PATF's music is lousy, and I suspect the Voodoo-filled trailer discouraged parents from bringing young children. But the movie's storyline is much better than any of Disney's own CG efforts, and I think it will do big business on DVD.

EDIT: FWIW, I rank PATF as a solid second-level Disney film, along the lines of Robin Hood, The Great Mouse Detective, and The Aristocats. Better music would have raised PATF to a first-level Disney effort, but of course nothing can come close to Snow White, Bambi, Cinderella, or Beauty and the Beast. Disney's "absolute best" movies were made when Hollywood was willing to pour money into a dream, not just a spreadsheet. Cameron, Spielberg, and Jackson are probably the only directors who can still command old-Hollywood control.

 

[MAF]

Link please.

If you have any recent Disney DVD, they have a promo for the movie and they play scenes from TLK, TLM, BatB, and Aladdin and claim that it's the second coming of Disney animation.

By the way I knew the movie was doomed when they announed that Paul Newman or whatever his name is was creating the music for the film. What made movies like the Lion King great was the soundtrack and this one failed miserably.

 

[EpcotServo]

Dumb as it sounds, the term does have some background in actual science.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

A "a humorous name" it says.


Still...As a probably-not-very-good-Screenwriter, that stuff bugs me. Like how in Sherlock Holmes last night they used the line "Death is only the Beginning." Yeah, that's a common phrase, but it didn't stop my mind from yelling "No, No! They said that in THE MUMMY! Think of something else!". It's all me, I know.

:lol:

 

[tirian]

If you have any recent Disney DVD, they have a promo for the movie and they play scenes from TLK, TLM, BatB, and Aladdin and claim that it's the second coming of Disney animation.

By the way I knew the movie was doomed when they announed that Paul Newman or whatever his name is was creating the music for the film. What made movies like the Lion King great was the soundtrack and this one failed miserably.

Randy Newman. He's Pixar's go-to guy, and the only song I can stand from him is "You've Got a Friend in Me."

Paul Newman is a fantastic actor who also makes tasty food products. :lol:

 

[Wilt Dasney]

A "a humorous name" it says.


Still...As a probably-not-very-good-Screenwriter, that stuff bugs me. Like how in Sherlock Holmes last night they used the line "Death is only the Beginning." Yeah, that's a common phrase, but it didn't stop my mind from yelling "No, No! They said that in THE MUMMY! Think of something else!". It's all me, I know.

:lol:

No, it's not all you. I agree that the name sounds so stupid that they should have gone with something else to avoid pulling people out of the film just at the sound of it.

Plus, the name is clearly something that's intended to be used for nonexistent minerals, so giving it to something that (apparently?) exists doesn't make a lot of sense. I was just showing that it wasn't something they pulled out of thin air.

 

[MAF]

Any reason that Disney skipped over Alan Menken for the soundtrack? "Randy" Newman was an awful choice. :shrug:

 

[Hrudey3032]

Randy Newman. He's Pixar's go-to guy, and the only song I can stand from him is "You've Got a Friend in Me."

Paul Newman was a fantastic actor who also made tasty food products. :lol:

edited for accuracy he was a legend

 

[marypoppins68]

Randy Newman. He's Pixar's go-to guy, and the only song I can stand from him is "You've Got a Friend in Me."

Paul Newman is a fantastic actor who also makes tasty food products. :lol:

Paul Newman is also dead. He died earlier this year.

Personally, I liked Princess and the Frog. You can't judge a movie by box office returns alone. I think it'll do better on DVD. As others have said, the release date could've been better, and last week you had parts of the country blanketed under tons of snow. A lot of people stayed home who would've gone to the movies.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

we thought it was going t be the next little mermaid

Who thought that? :shrug:

I figured it would be a pleasant little film, which is (IMO) exactly what it turned out to be.

 

[MAF]

It might as well have been direct-to-DVD seeing as how most people think that it will only be successful on DVD. Probably would have saved the company a lot of money (and embarassment) as well.

 

[ChrisFL]

It might as well have been direct-to-DVD seeing as how most people think that it will only be successful on DVD. Probably would have saved the company a lot of money (and embarassment) as well.

Yeah, I'm sure there would be no backlash whatsoever from having the first black Princess movie be direct-to-DVD

 

[MAF]

Yeah, I'm sure there would be no backlash whatsoever from having the first black Princess movie be direct-to-DVD

See that's why the movie failed. They hyped it up first because the princess happened to be black. Then they marketed it as the great return to Disney animation and compared the film to Lion King, BatB, TLM, ect. I was being extreme in saying it should have been a dircect to dvd, but I was personally disappointed. I expected better.

 

[Omnimover]

By the way I knew the movie was doomed when they announed that Paul Newman or whatever his name is was creating the music for the film.