Spirited News & Observations II -- NGE/Baxter

[HMF]

I don't see why it's a problem, it's a fine movie. :shrug:

It's a problem because as of right now I am not happy with the Company and I would like to see their profit margins decrease so the lunatics running the asylum can get their walking papers, ASAP. Baxters' resignation and Nextgen are the straws that broke the camels back in my book.

 

[Cody5242]

You didn't call him out, you called him an idiot, repeatedly.

For any told you so's, you therefore have to show Flynn is an idiot, not that Oz made eighty million. Good luck with that, considering Flynn is an intelligent, well-respected poster.

I know it is none of my business, but wouldn't you agree that the mature thing to do is to issue an apology instead of running around 'triumphantly'?

I called him that because I felt like he was just trying to make Disney look stupid by saying it would make less 25 mill aka trolling but I'm just going to drop this whole thing and not talk about it

 

[RyenDeckard]

I called him that because I felt like he was just trying to make Disney look stupid by saying it would make less 25 mill aka trolling but I'm just going to drop this whole thing and not talk about it

Good job resorting to personal insults because he insulted your favorite company.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Hmmmm..... that sounds familiar....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

MGM fell into a habit in this period that would eventually sink the studio: an entire year's production schedule relied on the success of one big-budget epic each year. This policy began in 1959, when Ben–Hur was profitable enough to carry the studio through 1960. However, later attempts at big-budget epics failed, among them four films which, in addition to Ben–Hur, were also remakes — Cimarron (1960), King of Kings (1961), Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1961), and most notoriously, the 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty. The 1962 Cinerama film The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. But one other epic that was a success, however, was the MGM-Cinerama co-production How the West Was Won, with a huge all-star cast. King of Kings, while a commercial and critical flop at the time, has since come to be regarded as a film classic. The losses caused by these films led to the resignations of Sol Siegel and Joseph Vogel who were replaced by Robert M. Weitman (head of production) and Robert O'Brien (president).

 

[Rodan75]

It's not necessarily the movie itself, but the underlying philosophy at the studio that created it. Disney studios almost exclusively do tent pole films, big budget films that have to triple their budget and marketing to be considered successful. This puts undue pressure on the studio to absolutely have every film to be a hit to get by. The problem is that not every film is a Avengers or Toy Story 3 and under this tentpole only model, that's failure. Disney does not need to do this, they aren't some tiny company where you live and die by the BO. One of Disney's greatest periods of box office success was during the mid-late 80's and 90's where the studio relied mostly on singles and doubles, lots of smaller budget films targeted at a variety of groups, and a handful of big budget productions like Roger Rabbit or Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast. If Oz, The Great and Powerful existed in that context, then the criticism would potentially be smaller. Unfortunately for the time being, we don't live in that world.

Spirited change will come... hopefully soon...

That was Ross' strategy, Horn is promoting a mix of tent poles and smaller movies.

 

[PhotoDave219]

While its absolutely great for TWDS to have a good opening weekend and hopefully make some money on this film, you have to keep in mind that it could have been fantastic. Instead, they go for heavy marketing and stunning CGI to subplant bad acting and a bad script, which worked for the Transformers franchise.

Just saying that the movie could have been so much better. Critics pan it, audiences love it. Go figure.

At least it wasn't "John Carter" bad.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

That was Ross' strategy, Horn is promoting a mix of tent poles and smaller movies.

Yes, but they need to move away from it faster than they currently are.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

They also need to go back to Walt Disney Pictures on the studio title!!!

 

[WDW1974]

There is a serious problem with child identity theft in this country, and I suspect it is only going to be worse. Not just because of the ease of obtaining private personal data, but because the FTC is absolutely worthless when it comes to doing anything about child identity theft.

I was involved with a case where the non-custodial grandmother (both parents were out of the picture) of a minor applied for multiple credit cards using the minor's social security number and racked up $40,000+ in debt. The custodial grandparents found out about a default judgment against the minor to collect on a delinquent account just by chance.

They contacted the prosecutor, who didn't do anything about it, so they came to us. I first contacted the FTC to see what might be done short of civil litigation. The FTC's solution, in essence, was just to file a meaningless/teethless report and contact the 3 credit reporting agencies and get them to correct the problem. None of the 3 agencies would do anything without a court order.

For lack of better options, we ended up filing suit and immediately sought summary judgment. It was easily won, but it should have never come to that in the first place.

Thanks for the info, Tom (think I owe you an email again!) I wasn't aware that things were as bad as they apparently are with child ID theft.

But, again, this is -- YET AGAIN! -- proof that we shouldn't be rushing into anything with technology that isn't absolutely secured. I sometimes wonder with all the huge lapses you hear about if that is even possible.

I just love that NGE/MM+ is proving to be such a monumental disaster that who knows if they'll ever be able to use it as they intended.

 

[Darth Sidious]

The film was hurt when Robert Downey Jr. dropped out. Even though the script wasn't great, I thought his ad libs and improv would have really been fantastic here

Having RDJ would have been amazing. He is my favorite Actor and Mila is my favorite actress to look at.

 

[WDW1974]

I have to agree with your friend. I saw it earlier today and thought it was entertaining. I found that while many of the criticisms were somewhat based on truths, they were definitely exaggerated, in my opinion. It's not the most amazing story, but I don't think it's nearly as bad as some of the reviews I've read/heard claim.

I've heard other positive reviews, including by two MAGICal friends ... I still think I'm going to wait and see it on my upcoming Disney Cruise.
But it seems that James Franco's performance is one of the weakest parts of the film.

Would be a shame if Disney is able to build an Oz franchise when they just lost the guy who could have done wonderful things for the parks with Oz.

 

[WDW1974]

So when do we think NextGen will be fully rolled out by and we can start getting new attractions again?

HAH!!!

ROTFLMFAO!!!

Next question.

 

[WDW1974]

Oh my, you are one of those WDW haters. Don't you know we're supposed to love everything Disney does at WDW.

Well, especially if they involve themed toilets. ... Do you know how proud the Toilet Brigade of Social Media has been over being out there Friday morning to video tape toilets (I see someone doing that and I am calling security and having them escorted out of the park or arrested).

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Would be a shame if Disney is able to build an Oz franchise when they just lost the guy who could have done wonderful things for the parks with Oz.

SELF INFLICTED WOUND!!!!!!!!!

 

[Longhairbear]

WDW1974, I'm assuming you saw the Next Gen story in USA Weekend, the insert that used to be Parade in the sunday paper?

 

[WDW1974]

Just a small correction for you. The "great empire" that built EPCOT Center had only a tiny fraction of the power and resources of today's TWDC.

Which is why what Disney accomplished in the late 70s and early 80s was so impressive ... and why taking five years to create a relatively small-scale Fantasyland makeover just is sad.

 

[WDW1974]

Is that really the worst thing? Those acquisitions are all going to set the company up to make gobs and gobs of money for the next 50+ years, and I think the problems with Bob Iger's TWDC are mostly fixable. I see it as certain parts of the company have been in sort of a holding pattern while making these big purchases. There's no reason something like the studio can't start cranking out more of its own creative content in two years when Iger is gone. There's no reason the next CEO can't have a different vision for WDW... one with new, quality rides. Like I've said before, they have to get back to building rides in WDW sometime in the mid-term future anyway because even if NextGen is wildly successful, Disney has to feed the Wall St beast with more revenue growth. Let's say NextGen increases per guest per day spending from $100 to $200 (crazy increase, but just an example). It's only going to do that once. In 2016 or so, your per guest spending will be $200 and it will be flat after that without other expansion because NextGen is already doing its thing. Say WDW is pulling $200 per day from 45 million people in 2016. Do you think Wall St will be happy with that same $200 per day from 45 million people in 2020, even though it was a meteoric increase from the circa 2012 numbers that would've taken decades to achieve through nickel-and-dime 1-2% annual increases? Nope. They're going to want $200 per day from 50 million people. Look at the griping about Apple. It's not dominant, but there is definitely an undercurrent of complaints that it's been a whole five years (omg) since Apple has completely revolutionized its industry. Let that sink in for a moment. If you have a truly transformative product like the iPhone, all of a sudden people expect you to have once-in-a-lifetime ideas every few years. It doesn't matter if you're one of the most valuable companies in the world: if you can make $1B, you should be able to make $2B. If you can make $2B, you should be making $4B next year.

I never said the acquisitions were bad. Pixar and Lucas are great ones and Marvel may well be too, although it doesn't feel like a 'fit' for Disney.

The issue is the current form of capitalism where you always need to make more than before and cut, harming employees and customers and damaging the brand.

Again, Disney stock is at all all-time high and yet they'll raise prices and cut quality because that's the only way to keep Wall Street happy with them.

Disney needs a visionary leader that isn't so concerned with the price of stock tomorrow, but the state of the company in 5-10-20 years. Bob Iger certainly isn't that guy.

And while the acquistions have been solid, Pixar will make a flop some day ... and the glut of Marvel superhero films will lead to diminishing returns ... and while there's a lot of excitement over the Star Wars Episode 7, I can't say that fans will line up for Jar-Jar Binks: Howsa I talked Mr. Lucas into aputin' me in his films after a wild nightsa on the beaches in Jamaica with my best friend 'MJ Binks'. Disney is already looking to overload the market with product when the last three films largely were utter crap. A better strategy would be to build some excitment again around ONE film and go slowly.

 

[WDW1974]

How does an $80 million dollar opening weekend "pay off" a production budget of $215 million?

It's a great start when added with the almost $70 million internationally. This film will be quite profitable and there will be a sequel, which may also lead to theme park development (likely anywhere in the world but the World!)

 

[WDW1974]

International number will indeed be interesting. While Oz might be a household term in the US, here in Germany a lot of people don't have a clue what it is as the Wizard of Oz is not well known here at all. I first heard about it as a teenager from some American friends and until this day have never seen the film. So at least here - and possibly in quite a few other countries - the film can't rely on people going to see the new film because of that nostalgia factor and the curiosity of what they did with something people loved in their childhood.

True, but you are the ONLY nation on earth that has the McRib as a permanent menu item. ... And you have great food beyond fast food too!

As to Oz, the '39 classic, I've likely seen in 39 times, but not because I love it so much as I saw it on TV annually as a child until I was about 22 and I've seen it numerous times since than. A lot of fanbois also seem to love Judy Garland too. It isn't really a great film, but it has been seared into our national consciouness almost like having to take your brats to WDW!

 

[PhotoDave219]

It's a great start when added with the almost $70 million internationally. This film will be quite profitable and there will be a sequel, which may also lead to theme park development (likely anywhere in the world but the World!)

Well thats good for the company. Good for the Studio and hopefully it will continue performing with Iron Man 3 & Monsters U.

I'd suggest that it would mean that there would be less pressure for P&R to perform but we both know this company doesnt work that way. Plus the Parks have been packed of late so I dont think that performance is an issue at the moment.