The 2023 Disney Failure Thread

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Thursday, January 25, 2024 20:58
VIEWED: 8549
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6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, August 1, 2023 10:30 PM

It just occurred to me that people might not be reading this thread right. As the weekend numbers come in, I update the original post after copying the previous week's OP at the end of the thread (This is usually sometime late-evening Monday or early-morning Tuesday). This isn't how I'm doing the other 3 lists encompassing the top US produced movies in the Top 50 Worldwide, so I thought I should point that out.


Under the 2x Rule of Thumb model which appears could be an outdated model, with evidence from Variety.com articles that I've presented in this thread, Disney would have been set to finally show a modest profit of around $33 Million this past weekend for 2023 had it not been for the fact that the nearly $160 Million Budget reboot of Haunted Mansion came out and only made 21% of its budget over the weekend.

There were two reasons for this. The first reason is Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3, the only successful Marvel property released this year, has been carrying the studio limping to the finish line, it has been able to erase nearly $340 Million of the losses that various other films have created. That is over now though. Not only did it make only around $100k domestic in the last 7 days, but over the last 3 weeks the official worldwide number has lost nearly $2.5 Million, with losses of roughly $700k, $1.1 M, and $500k in that time. This has to be due from miscalculating and/or misreporting international numbers and rectifying that after the fact. But bottom line is that Guardians will help Disney no more. Not in 2023. Not beyond 2023. Guardians is over.

The second reason is the surprise longevity and back-end performance of Elemental. For a movie with a $200M budget and a $400M rule of thumb goal, it wasn't looking good after the first weekend when it only managed to pull in 22% of its production budget worldwide. It didn't quite break even this weekend, but there is zero doubt that it will now that it's sitting at 197% and still looking reasonably strong for a movie that has been out this long.

Moderate "wins" for Disney like Antman's final $63+ million profit, or The Little Mermaid's almost final $60+ million profit are not helpful for a company that loves putting out massive budget flicks and hasn't managed to put out a single one that came close to pulling in a Billion at the box office this year to offset movies like Indy 5 that are nearing the end of their theater run while they just pulled in only $7.5 Million last week in the domestic box office and are still nearly $250 Million in the hole... or Peter Pan and Wendy which cost $170 Million to make and lost all of that money plus marketing costs when they made the decision to release it on their streaming platform that is already reportedly losing $800 Million in the last quarter alone.

With the current box office updated to Sunday, July 30th, current losses for Disney with the 2x Rule of thumb are -$282,417,525.

And all of this assumes that the 2x Rule of Thumb model is even valid anymore in 2023. Variety.com doesn't seem to think so when they claim that Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania lost Disney tens of millions of dollars, which would suggest that the Rule of Thumb has changed to 2.5x the Production Budget.

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/disney-box-office-failures-indiana-
jones-elemental-ant-man-1235660409

Quote:

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. There was the dispiriting release of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” a rare Marvel movie to likely lose tens of millions in its theatrical run

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6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, August 1, 2023 10:34 PM

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JEWELSTAITEFAN

Wednesday, August 2, 2023 3:19 AM

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/desantis-controlled-disney-world-district-17
5756727.html

Quote:

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DeSantis-controlled Disney World district abolishes diversity, equity initiatives
The Canadian Press
Tue, August 1, 2023 at 12:57 p.m. CDT·3 min read

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Diversity, equity and inclusion programs were abolished Tuesday from Walt Disney World's governing district, now controlled by appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an echo of the Florida governor's agenda which has championed curtailing such programs in higher education and elsewhere.

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said in a statement that its diversity, equity and inclusion committee would be eliminated, as would any job duties connected to it. Also axed were initiatives left over from when the district was controlled by Disney supporters, which awarded contracts based on goals of achieving racial or gender parity.

Glenton Gilzean, the district's new administrator who is African American and a former head of the Central Florida Urban League, called such initiatives “illegal and simply un-American." Gilzean has been a fellow or member at two conservative institutions, the James Madison Institute and the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network, as well as a DeSantis appointee to the Florida Commission on Ethics.

“Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race or advance the notion that we are not created equal," Gilzean said in a statement. "As the former head of the Central Florida Urban League, a civil rights organization, I can say definitively that our community thrives only when we work together despite our differences.”

An email was sent seeking comment from Disney World.

Last spring, DeSantis, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, signed into law a measure that blocks public colleges from using federal or state funding on diversity programs.

DeSantis also has championed Florida's so-called “Stop WOKE” law, which bars businesses, colleges and K-12 schools from giving training on certain racial concepts, such as the theory that people of a particular race are inherently racist, privileged or oppressed. A federal judge last November blocked the law’s enforcement in colleges, universities and businesses, calling it "positively dystopian.”

The creation of the district, then known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, was instrumental in Disney’s decision to build a theme park resort near Orlando in the 1960s. Having a separate government allowed the company to provide zoning, fire protection, utilities and infrastructure services on its sprawling property. The district was controlled by Disney supporters for more than five decades.

The DeSantis appointees took control of the renamed district earlier this year following a yearlong feud between the company and DeSantis. The fight began last year after Disney, beset by significant pressure internally and externally, publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades, a policy critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”

As punishment, DeSantis took over the district through legislation passed by Republican lawmakers and appointed a new board of supervisors to oversee municipal services for the sprawling theme parks and hotels. Disney sued DeSantis and his five board appointees in federal court, claiming the Florida governor violated the company’s free speech rights by taking the retaliatory action.

Before the new board came in, Disney made agreements with previous oversight board members who were Disney supporters that stripped the new supervisors of their authority over design and development. The DeSantis-appointed members of the governing district have sued Disney in state court in a second lawsuit stemming from the district’s takeover, seeking to invalidate those agreements.

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