re: Go Woke, Go Broke - Disney Loses Top Spot at Box Office to Universal

quote:

---

Their movies are just one small part of their profits though. They have the theme parks, cruises, merch, tv shows, etc etc

---

Without the stories, Disney world is just another amusement park. Kids 20 years down the road aren't going to be begging their parents to go see element characters, and parents who may have seen element when they were young weren't impacted enough by the movie to want their children to relive the magic with them.

They have great parks and cruises, but the stories and characters that infuse it are vital to the experience imo.

quote:

---

They have great parks

---

...and are hella busy.

quote:

---

Yep but Mario was one of the highest grossing movies last year if I’m not mistaken. I think that would demonstrate people are still willing to go see a children’s movie if the kids are entertained.

---

I suspect more movies with the same corners cut would yield less sales.

I went not knowing what to expect. Next time I'll be more cautious. The Jurassic Park/World franchise is much the same. They've been going downhill, the last one was horrible. Bad plot and even the special effects didn't look as polished. I'd wait to see anymore until I could rent it for a few bucks.

I agree. Very few movies nowadays looked interesting enough to go to the theater for

quote:

---

Those movies would have taken a backseat if they had some big Avengers or Star Wars movies out last year

---

They did have some big MCU movies out last year. Marvel Studios' Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, bombed and lost the studio roughly $125 million. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, did really well and made the studio around $600 million. Then there was The Marvels, which bombed. The Marvels cost nearly $320 million to make and market. It lost nearly $100 million for the studio.

They also brought out a new Indiana Jones movie that cost $400 million to make and market; it lost the studio $25 million dollars. Though they say they really lost a lot more on this one and there was some clever accounting work to shift the costs from this to other areas of the business to make it look a little better.

They released a Pixar movie this year, usually a cash cow and they managed to lost money on it. $200 Million + to make and it only brought in less than $180 million.

The Little Mermaid cost over $300 million and only brought in $280 million.

They actually had a huge slate of big movies this year and had what they thought were a series of blockbusters and most of them bombed. They were poorly written and had forced agendas as part of their core story. Much more so in the Indiana Jones movie than the Marvels, surprisingly.

quote:

---

I don't remember anything particularly woke in the new Indiana Jones but people keep saying that. What was woke?

---

It wasn't nearly as bad or on the nose as expected, but the essential destruction or forced incompetence of Indy's character in favor of a "girl boss" was a pretty expected and low-quality trope.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge who wrote and starred in the movie called Indy's character the essence of the patriarchy in interviews and blamed the viewers for how the movie did. Disney fired her and canceled her upcoming productions she did so poorly in her responses to the film underperforming.

No matter how you slice it, it was a shite movie and should have never been made.

quote:

---

Are they though?

---

Yes. Stocks are down 50% in the last 3 years. Park visits, also down:

Bloomberg

There is a proxy war going on currently at the Disney board to try to fire this tool before he destroys all the value in the company for his woke agenda.

Disney is in trouble.

quote:

---

BTW which movies do you consider "woke" that they came out with last year off the top of your head

---

Off the top of my head, well there is the 330 million they have lost on Melanin White, that they still have not released for fear of another stinker at the box office.