Wish (Walt Disney Animation - November 2023)

[TsWade2]

It pains me to say it as an Iger fan but I don’t think anything will change until Iger himself is gone.

Disney needs a reset from the top down, Iger, the board, the creatives… they need an Eisner/Wells reboot to find new energy and life.

Give them time!

 

[FettFan]

I can’t wait to see what is invented to cover this latest disaster. Dog ate my homework? Sun got in my eyes? Too many farting goat movies in the marketplace?

Heat wave in Florida?

 

[MrPromey]

Hmm. I wonder why Disney hasn’t just gone with this approach, since it’s so simple. Hopefully they call you soon!

Sick burn!

What they’re doing these days clearly isn’t working for them so maybe they should.

 

[LittleBuford]

However during it's theatrical run window, it lost money.

Perhaps you have me on ignore, but I’ve already demonstrated this isn’t the case.

 

[WorldExplorer]

Actually,

Spoiler: Spoiler

Kind of? When Magnifico is defeated, he is sucked into his mirror staff, and the magic mirror face flashes on the screen for half a second. He's shown in the mirror realm with his human face after this, but it's up for debate what that means, as well as Asha's future.

Spoiler: Spoiler

That does sound ambiguous. I hope it's just them not thinking through their references. The whole idea of trying to shoehorn your way into a classic is so incredibly obnoxious to me.

Also, the Evil Queen explicitly calls him "slave in the magic mirror", so fun moral implications there if that's what they meant.

 

[celluloid]

And yet you can point to big budget movies like MI:7 that also failed as showing its not just impacting only Disney.

I mean it is the seventh in a series that has been long in the tooth for awhile and never smash hit to the level of other franchises that have had that many films.

The real issue is this...

The thing is, now the annual box office is back up to a year where there is going to be 8 billion plus in revenue. In 2020 it was 2 billion..

In 2023, with the billion in box office sales up from last year, Disney lost about a billion plus in their main source of revenue for their company. Mother other ships rose, Disney's was the one that lost the most.

They did not have an Oppenheimer, a Missing, a Barbie, Hunger Games, Five Nights at Freddy's, a Holdovers, a Sound of Freedom, an Exorcist: Believer, A Spiderman: Across the Spider verse, A Nun, a M3GAN, a Jesus Revolution, a Talk to Me, a Thanksgiving Evil Dad Rise, Mario or even a John Wick Chapter 4.

All of the above films doubled, tripled or quadrupled their budget in domestic alone and a few even more than that.

Plenty of movies from various studios have had a flop or meh. But Disney only had Guardians as a theatrical win.

And now we could not even save it with Disney's biggest promoted animation in years and since years.

Disney is the only major studio with this consistent big issue. Even their lower budgeted films lost them money. They have the opposite of the midas touch, some kind of scat finger.

 

[erasure fan1]

Also, recall that movies make much more income than theatrical alone, barring economic collapse.

That might have been the case before. Remember most of those post release income streams are a fraction of what they used to be. Disney isn't selling their stuff to linear TV like they used to. DVDs and Blu-ray are a drop in the bucket now. And the rental market is almost non-existent. So if they don't hit with the merchandise side of things, they're pretty well jacked.

It pains me to say it as an Iger fan but I don’t think anything will change until Iger himself is gone.

I agree. It doesn't really matter what he says at this point. He's ed off such a large portion of the fan base, it just won't matter what he says. I feel the same way about Kennedy. Even though Dave is a step in the right direction for star wars. There's a huge portion of the fan base that just won't care. It will always be Kennedy lurking in the shadows like Palps in the sequels pulling the strings.

 

[drod1985]

I'm drinking the Kool-Aid and want to see Wish.

But when the rain started today and we decided to take the kids to the movies it was Trolls that got our business. The power of Y2K boy band nostalgia won my wife over.

 

[Disney Irish]

I mean it is the seventh in a series that has been long in the tooth for awhile and never smash hit to the level of other franchises that have had that many films.

The real issue is this...


Disney is the only major studio with this consistent big issue. Even their lower budgeted films lost them money. They have the opposite of the midas touch, some kind of scat finger.

I noticed you left Turtles off your list.

Anyways, once again no one is disputing that Disney is the top of this years lowest studio performer list. Paramount though is a close second with its underperformers.

That being said it still is at the moment the second highest grossing studio behind Universal in 2023. So even if it did lose money, it still brought in over $1.3B domestic.

 

[mickEblu]

So something’s gotta give. Do they start cutting the production budget for these movies by 2/3? Do they shake things up with the writers?

 

[Disney Irish]

So something’s gotta give. Do they start cutting the production budget for these movies by 2/3? Do they shake things up with the writers?

From the things I've been reading, its all of the above. Its just going to take awhile for all of it to shake out.

 

[Disney Irish]

I'm drinking the Kool-Aid and want to see Wish.

You should see it, its actually pretty good despite reviews that say otherwise.

 

[mickEblu]

Not sure what it says about my attention span (or maybe because I’m getting older) but I can remember the last time I was engaged throughout an entire animated movie. That goes for movies with good reviews too like the new TMNT and the most recent Puss in Boots. Only brief segments seem to capture my attention.

 

[Disney Irish]

Not sure what it says about my attention span (or maybe because I’m getting older) but I can remember the last time I was engaged throughout an entire animated movie. That goes for movies with good reviews too like the new TMNT and the most recent Puss in Boots. Only brief segments seem to capture my attention.

Not just you, its affecting the general public too. I just had this same discussion in one of these threads where I mention that all forms of entertainment are directly competing not just for the dollar but for the attention of the consumer.

There is so much out there that is trying to get our eyeballs that it becomes overwhelming and the consumer loses interest real quick.

 

[MrPromey]

Spoiler: Spoiler

That does sound ambiguous. I hope it's just them not thinking through their references. The whole idea of trying to shoehorn your way into a classic is so incredibly obnoxious to me.

Also, the Evil Queen explicitly calls him "slave in the magic mirror", so fun moral implications there if that's what they meant.

Well if that's how you feel...

Spoiler: Spoiler

You definitely don't want to stick around for the after-credits scene in this one!

 

[drizgirl]

I was actually going to see the movie despite the lackluster reviews, but it's my adult daughter (and Disney partner in crime) who decided she didn't want to.

 

[MrPromey]

Perhaps it’ll have a disappointing opening but do well in the long-run.

Just came back from seeing it.

I don't think that's going to be the case.

 

[WorldExplorer]

Well if that's how you feel...

Spoiler: Spoiler

You definitely don't want to stick around for the after-credits scene in this one!

That would require watching the movie itself to begin with...

Spoiler: Spoiler

I'm guessing it's the star becoming the Pinocchio wishing star? I heard that one, too.

 

[MrPromey]

Your point is?
We know Wish made just shy of $4 million. Trolls hasn't even come in officially, for a comparison.

Actually, it has. Trolls made $46.5 million in it's opening three day non-holiday weekend.*

Thanksgiving week is supposed to be a big week for family releases with the holiday and the longer "weekend" and Disney used to own it. Other studios were afraid to release family films anywhere near it because of Disney.

Maybe you were trying to suggest the holiday might somehow be hurting movies but if that were the case, Disney would not save their big shot every year for this week.

*Full disclosure - I have never seen a Trolls movie. None of them have ever appealed to me based on the trailers and my son has never shown any interest so they might be popular crap (how I feel about a certain robot franchise and another one with cars that go vroom-vroom) for all I know. I just want to be clear I am in NO WAY comparing them to any of Disney's output based on quality.

 

[MrPromey]

That would require watching the movie itself to begin with...

Spoiler: Spoiler

I'm guessing it's the star becoming the Pinocchio wishing star? I heard that one, too.

Actually, I think the particular retcon at play there would make you even more angry.

Lets say you're close enough but with even bigger implications.