TP2000
Well-Known Member
I enjoyed the movie, as you all know. I do not see this film as one that should have performed as badly as it has - but it has.
I stand firm that there are a few major factors at play here:
- A post-pandemic box office
I just think that's an excuse at this point, the waning weeks of 2022. I could buy it last Thanksgiving, even though Spiderman did huge box office numbers a year ago. But now? It seems like a weak excuse that nervous execs use to paper over their management faults.
The box office data shows that for the past year Americans will turn out in huge numbers and pack multiplex theaters to the brim if the movie appeals to them. Strange World clearly didn't appeal to them. We can't use Covid as the excuse any more, just like we can't use 9/11 or the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 as the excuse either.
But I'm sure some nervous execs and industry types will still try to use Covid as an excuse for marketplace failure.
- A streaming landscape with Disney+ as the second most popular service in the world (meaning HUGE audience numbers that now have a choice to save money, and watch from comfort of their home).
Now there we go. That I agree with. I don't envy them with the mess they got into with Disney+. Hindsight is 20/20 and I can admit that the decisions they made in a very panicky 2020 when theaters were closed made sense at the time, but their exit strategy from that environment in 2021 and 2022 has been awful. They really have no one to blame but themselves, although many will happily blame Bob Chapek alone for the next six months or so.
- The handling by Disney of their animated projects since 2020 - which has changed audience behaviour for Disney Animated / Pixar films. This handling looks to have resulted in poor marketing / awareness of this film, and many who know of the film may still be waiting for it to be on their TVs in 45 days.
Exactly. See above with the mess they created themselves by handling Disney+ releases as they did.
Yes, there are succesful projects coming out in this Post-Pandemic theatrical landscape, but they are not really the norm right now. The box office has not recovered, and there is much discourse out there, about what films will still manage to be successful under this changed landscape. If you're not a REALLY popular IP, or a major Blockbuster... good luck.
I'm of the opinion that the "Post-Pandemic" landscape has more to do with very cheap streaming services delivering 4K media and Dolby audio onto giant and astonishingly cheap 70 inch screens that the average middle-class family can now afford. And that would have happened even without Covid.
The entertainment options a middle-class American family has now is unprecedented, and wildly different than just 10 years ago. That's not a problem exclusive to Disney's studios of various brands. But the past year of box office megahits has shown that if you make a movie that American families really want to see in the theater, they'll get up off the couch and leave the family room to see it.
I don't think MOST on here want Disney to fail (although some do come across as gleeful at the prospect). But I sincerely hope Disney can turn this around, or they leverage this to work in their favour with Disney+.
Agreed. But it's up to Disney to make films and entertainment that American families want to see. Really want to see! They do well with Marvel, thank God, but the rest of their studios are firing blanks in 2022. What changes in 2023 and '24, I wonder? Can they change? And can they change fast enough?