Examining Disney's problems in 2019 reveals a serious problem – / Movie

(Welcome to The Disney Discourse a recurring column in which Josh Spiegel discusses the latest Disney news, deepens everything from animated clbadics to theme parks. edition: Disney may have a resounding success, but its failures reveal a disturbing trend.)

Last month, Robert Iger general manager of the Walt Disney Company, spoke [19659005] to the financial magazine Barron about what 2019 brings to Disney. Among the various topics, including the upcoming Disney + broadcast service, the new Star Wars Zone: Galaxy's Edge in the company's Continental Theme Parks and many more, Iger echoed the indisputable idea that Disney is a real monster at the box office. He mentioned that Disney usually releases "between eight and ten films a year," which will help them reach $ 7 billion in box office in 2019, a feat that only … Disney, there are some years. .

But what is important to remember, and perhaps a little heartbreaking, is that these numbers are achieved through the different studios that Disney has acquired in its monstrous wake, as opposed to the movies made by the studio itself.

A Mixed Bag At The Box Office of 2018

In 2018, Disney won three box office hits: Black Panther The Avengers: Infinity War and [19659009] Incredibles 2 . Whatever you think qualitatively about these films, they each brought in more than $ 600 million in the United States and Canada alone; Even more impressive is that 2018 was the first year in which Disney recorded three separate large sales of $ 600 million nationally. For those who still love Disney as being more than acquiring other studios, it's a bit worrisome that none of the aforementioned movies released by Walt Disney Studios itself (by which I mean anything that [19659012] by Pixar, Marvel or Lucasfilm) had almost the same success. Disney is definitely a box office giant. But it's only because of the studios he has acquired, which only dilutes his own identity, now and in the future.

Of the ten films that Disney released in theaters in 2018, five of them came directly from their own studio, as opposed to A Wrinkle in Time Christopher Robin The Nutcracker and the Four Kingdoms Ralph Breaks the Internet and The Statements of Mary Poppins . Only the last two could be considered moderate successes, but if you combine the gross box-office revenue for each of these five films, the overall result remains below the gross total for Avengers: Infinity War or ]. Black Panther . Most, if not all, Walt Disney Company films have the prerogative to capitalize on pre-existing intellectual property or make "trademark filings," as Iger once said. But the deposits of the Disney brand do not report as much as they should have this year and foreshadow a future where they will continue to run out financially if not creatively.

But whatever that may be, the real concern of Disney should be in the respective box office the results for the other four films they published in 2018. It is safe to say that A Wrinkle in Time was a different type of risk for the House of the Mouse because it was from a film based on a property that [19659009] was not a real trademark filing. Disney did not own the romance of The Engle as they own it Winnie the Pooh Fantasia Mary Poppins and Wreck-It Ralph ]. That was probably all the properties badociated with Disney that Disney was playing that would work.

The Nutcracker and the Four Kingdoms is the largest flop of the four, with a well-known production story, which ended in a truly unique case: one of the directors (Joe Johnston) resuming covers of the original director (Lbade Hallstrom), to the point that they both get a "Directed by" credit in the final film. (When the story was first reported, the Directors Guild of America could not propose a similar case while it was happening before.) According to the found source, Four Realms had A budget of US $ 120. and $ 133 million, which does not take into account the marketing, or the very real probability that the new shots led by Johnston could have increased the cost of the film. But that brought in less than $ 175 million worldwide, but no less than $ 55 million in the United States. The critics were harsh and the audience simply mocked a movie inspired by the punch of the holiday ballet The Nutcracker as well as the Disney clbadic in 1940 Fantasia .

– scale Christopher Robin a) had a lower budget of $ 75 million and b) was receiving nearly $ 200 million worldwide. He could not cross the $ 100 million threshold on the domestic market. As I wrote at the end of 2018, it is easy to ask whether Christopher Robin could have ended up on the Disney + streaming service, in skipping a theatrical release if it had been done a few years later. . In this interview with Barron, Iger explains that theatrical releases in theaters that Disney manages will likely have larger budgets, but at least two of the next remakes of his clbadics animated by the studio, The Sword in the stone and ] Lady and the Tramp go straight to streaming. There may be an audience for these films, but it is probably not a large audience Beauty and the Beast .

Directed by Marc Forster Christopher Robin got a better response from critics and the public. (Technically is a better film than Four Realms but I was not a fan of any of them.) However, even a 75 million film dollars from the world 's largest studio must be turned a boat full of money to be profitable. Although many people love the characters of Hundred Acre Wood, there is little interest in a more adult-centered story, with characters loved mostly by toddlers. Christopher Robin might have seemed like a sure bet: who does not like Winnie the Pooh? – but some nostalgic wagers will not pay much.

The two brightest points of Disney in 2018

That leaves us with Ralph Breaks the Internet and Mary Poppins Returns who have both make a lot more money than the other films mentioned here, without being an absolute success. To date, Ralph has reported just over $ 450 million worldwide, with gross receipts of nearly $ 195 million; Poppins 2.0 has generated more than 300 million dollars worldwide, of which more than 160 million from North America. But as in Four Realms each of these films has very large budgets. The budget shown by Ralph is $ 175 million (a relatively common figure for a Disney animated film or Pixar), and that of Poppins 2.0 is $ 130 million. The problem is not that these films have failed all over the world; it's that Disney has become so important that everything has to be returned home to be profitable. That's why Marvel's year was so good for the larger company because it was pretty successful. Disney did not have one.

It is interesting to note that, at least for the moment, according to Mojo Box Office, Ralph Breaks the Internet has always sold fewer tickets than Wreck-It Ralph did in 2012 and has not yet reached the global ticketing number of its predecessor. And compared to Illumination The Grinch Ralph 2 did not burst at the domestic box office. Although Ralph was nominated for the award for Best Animated Film, he will likely lose one of the other nominees, from Incredibles 2 to Isle of Dogs Best Animated Film of 2018, Spider-Man: Towards the Spider-Verse . Disney bet here, as with the other films listed, that the public would make Ralph Breaks the Internet a resounding success, far more than its predecessor (who had died at the global box office, while earning around 100 millions of dollars less than Tangled ). In fact, Disney made a trademark deposit that yielded less than desired or expected.

It is the same up to now for Mary Poppins Returns a film that had extremely high box office predictions. before her release, only to earn the decent amount she was likely to always win. Even though the film was beautiful (what I say as a fan of the original Mary Poppins this is not the case), its success with the general public was probably much less important. First, musicals do not make money the size of a box office superhero; Even the Internet favorite The Greatest Showman reported $ 174 million in the domestic market, a figure Poppins 2.0 not yet achieved. And yes, people my age (34 years old) may have grown up with the 1964 original thanks to VHS. But the people who flocked to films like Aquaman or Spider-Man and made them feel more culturally relevant belong to all of them. ages and not just to an older audience.

There is no doubt that Disney insisted that Mary Poppins Returns get some Oscar nominations, including one for Emily Blunt. But no advertising has convinced Blunt (and even if it is possible to blame some studios not to market their films to reward them, this is not the case of Disney and Poppins [19659012]); the film only received four honors at the Oscars. Admittedly, having Oscar nominations could strengthen the film at the box office, but being disregarded from broad categories will not help it to achieve the style of Greatest Showman at the box -office that some people were hoping for. for.